Delaware Chancery update–live from BVR webcast
ONe advantage of practicing as an expert in the Delaware Chancery Court is that you’re less likely to see Daubert challenges, Vice Chancellor Donald Parsons told today’s BVR Webcast. The simple reason is that the cases are bench trials–without a jury–so it’s “assumed that the members of the court can determine what’s admissible and what’s [...]
Qualification of experts in Tax Court–from the judge’s perspective
“Credentials don’t mean that an appraiser is an expert in all valuation issues,” says Judge David Laro, speaking today at the Georgetown Law Center, as part of BVR’s Tax and Valuation Summit. ”What’s important is that the expert has qualification focused on the relevant issues of the case.” Because of this, Judge Laro has prevented [...]
Expert’s ‘hyberbole’ comes back to haunt in Daubert hearing
Experienced litigation experts know that their published articles and statements (even on a blog or in a professional discussion group) can be used against them in a courtroom. That’s what happened in a recent bankruptcy case, when the expert conducted an insolvency analysis without interviewing management or visiting the subject properties, yet claimed in a [...]
PwC updates study on Daubert challenges to appraisers and financial experts
PricewaterhouseCoopers has just released its Daubert Challenges to Financial Experts:An 11-year study of trends and outcomes, which surveys federal cases since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1999 Kumho Tire decision expanded Daubert’s reach to financial experts. Highlights of this year’s report include: This past year (2010) saw the most challenges and the second highest exclusion rate for all expert [...]
Even Ibbotson can be challenged by aggressive defense counsel
The related Metro Tech cases show how far opposing counsel will go to discredit the testimony of a financial expert. In this case, the plaintiff, a Puerto Rico corporation that specializes in laboratory calibration and preventive maintenance services, contracted with the defendant to conduct the necessary assessments to certify the plaintiff as ISO 17025 compliant. [...]
Show your work to avoid a Daubert challenge
In last week’s BVR webinar “The Latest on Motions to Exclude Financial Experts: The Now-Routine Trial Tactic that Works,” Robert M. Lloyd (University of Tennessee College of Law) and Jonathan Dunitz (Friedman Gaythwaite Wolf & Leavitt) offered several suggestions for writing a report that will reduce your vulnerability to Daubert challenges. “The first thing is [...]
More problems using preliminary valuations in divorce
Divorce cases often catch an expert between a rock (limited client funds for valuing a smaller business) and a hard place (limited evidentiary weight accorded to a preliminary calculation of value). Sadly, parties and their attorneys frequently ask business appraisers to perform a preliminary valuation, “just for settlement purposes,” but as we noted in the [...]
A sampling of new cases added to BVLaw
These new abstracts, and related court documents, are among those added to the Business Valuation Law database in the last weeks. Go to BVLaw for to access these key decisions. Brighton Collectibles, Inc. v. Coldwater Creek, Inc., 2010 WL 3718859 (S.D. Cal.)(Sept. 20, 2010) Good use of marketing and financial expert defeats summary judgment and [...]
Special Legal Report: Daubert Challenges Ten Years After Kumho Tire
By Sherrye Henry, Jr, Esq. BVWire Legal Editor It’s been ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court expanded its ruling in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to all types of technical expert testimony—including financial experts and business appraisers—in Kumho Tire v. Carmichael. PriceWaterhouseCoopers has just released its new Daubert Challenges to Financial Experts: A [...]
Industry experience carries the day in front of Tax Court
Contributed by Sherrye Henry, Jr., Esq. Legal Editor for Business Valuation Resources, LLC. Ringgold Telephone Co. v. Commissioner., T.C. Memo. 2010-103, 2010 WL 1850426 (U.S. Tax Ct.)(May 10, 2010) BVR customers should take note of a series of decisions in the last few months which show a trend for an expert’s industry experience to trump [...]
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