Liability Claims May Follow In this article, the Expert Witness Exchange (EWE) discusses expert witness liability exposure. [su_pullquote align=”right”]Resources: Expert Witness Bootcamp Experts Sabotaging Themselves in Court—The Judges Tell All Testimony at Trial: What the Trier of Fact Expects From the Expert Who Wants to be an Expert? Expert Preparation for the Expert Deposition [/su_pullquote] Expert witnesses provide a great service to our court system in the United States, as well as in many other countries around the world. They are often sought out by attorneys to offer their opinion in legal matters without having any personal stake in the…
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Often the Link Between Damages and Causation Even with established liability, a plaintiff seeking damages must be able to calculate damages with reasonable certainty and demonstrate a causal link between the defendant’s acts and the plaintiff’s injury. The concept of causation is simple—did a defendant’s wrongful act cause the plaintiff’s damages? Proving causation, however, is not always as simple. Many times, damage experts simply assume causation. However, courts sometimes reject a finding on causation, and therefore the resulting damages, when an expert fails to consider alternative factors that could have caused or contributed to the plaintiff’s damages. Accordingly, a damage…
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The IRS announced relief from late-payment penalties and that it will allow late elections for taxpayers subject to the new Sec. 965 transition tax on deemed repatriated foreign earnings, which was enacted by P.L. 115-97, known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. To read the full article in The Tax Adviser, click: Sec. 965 Transition Tax Penalty Relief Issued.
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New lease accounting standards come into force at the start of next year which will fundamentally change how companies can report off-balance sheet financing. How will the new rules affect finance leaders? To read the full article in Accountancy Age, click: Lease Accounting Standards: Are Multinationals Sitting on a “Leaseberg” of Huge Proportions?
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Ascertaining the Financial Status of a Business in a Few Quick Glances The 60-Second Method is a system of ascertaining the financial status of a business or other entity in a few quick glances. It is a training tool that can be used to demonstrate how financial analysis works, or instruct decision-makers beginning to read and understand financial statement content.
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Business valuation (BV) liability claims are not as frequent compared to other litigation risks faced by practitioners. On the other hand, there are BV-related liability claims that exist, especially in cases where a valuation report was used to guide financial decisions by businesses, lending services, regulatory agencies, and others, according to Frank Vinluan, in the January 21 issue of FVS News. One of the best ways valuators can reduce their risk of a lawsuit starts with the engagement letter. Engagement letters can help limit a valuator’s exposure by clearly establishing the expectations of work to be performed, the purpose…
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Are there hidden risks to the valuator? The best defense against liability is a good offense. As Joseph Petrucelli explains in this article, a good starting point to ensure the appropriate level of professional skepticism and due professional care is maintained in engagements is asking the question: “What would a reasonable person think about my judgment?”