September, 2008
Court Approves Valuation Expert’s $18.6M Diminished Value Tag in S&L Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a case that begins at the dawn of the 1980s S&L crisis, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims has found “fair and reasonable” the opinion of an expert witness for S&L owners that the Government’s breach of their assistance agreements caused by the enactment of FIRREA cost them $18.6 million in [...]
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Daubert Attacks Go Beyond Experts to the Supporting Data
OCALA, FLA. – In an interesting twist to what’s becoming the standard Daubert challenge, the party opposing the financial expert in this case not only attacked the reliability of his opinions but also moved to exclude the mortgage pricing data on which he based his calculations, claiming that the provider should have been disclosed as [...]
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Credit Bubble Struggle Playing Out on Many Fronts
By J. Bruce Boisture, Managing Partner, Grais & Ellsworth LLP The crisis in the structured finance market continues, and the legal actions to sort out its consequences are also proceeding apace. As befits the aftermath of a credit bubble of such magnitude, the struggle is taking place on many fronts. Purchasers of collateralized debt obligations, [...]
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Fierce Daubert Challenge Fails, Court Says Wait for Trial
A recent case out of federal court in Louisiana isn’t groundbreaking or unusual, but is illustrative of how attorneys swat at financial expert witnesses like low-hanging piñatas. In a case where the value of an engineering firm came into play, the plaintiff aimed its Daubert challenge at defense expert Kim Early CPA, MBA, calling [...]
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Defendant’s CEO a Valuation ‘Expert,’ Not Fact Witness
Compania v. Titan International, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 14571 CHICAGO – The Seventh Circuit has affirmed the exclusion of testimony from an officer of the defendant in the case, because the defendant attempted to offer his opinion as a fact witness. The court said his valuation was not based on “particularized knowledge” gained by working [...]
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Valuing a Law Firm, Goodwill & Contingency Fee Cases
The majority of states now recognize that the commercial or enterprise goodwill of a private professional practice constitutes marital property in divorce cases, while goodwill pertaining to the individual professionals does not. However, few cases give concrete guidance how to characterize the components of commercial versus professional goodwill. And when, as in this Texas divorce, [...]
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Lack of Very Specific Experience Beats Expert’s Knowledge, Diligence in Painstaking Daubert Review
Baldwin v. Bader, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56236 or 2008 WL 2875351 PORTLAND, Me.—This is the Maine federal court’s second look at what it called a close and difficult question—the valuation of personal guaranties given by company insiders to secure financing. The first review came on a motion to exclude expert testimony that valued personal [...]
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Legionnaires Cruise Case Settles
The highly publicized Celebrity Cruise, Inc. case over lost profits caused by a 1984 Legionnaires’ disease outbreak aboard the Celebrity ship “Horizon” has settled. The maker of the swimming pool water filters (Essef Corporation, now called Pentair Water Treatment Co.)—which allegedly triggered the disease—agreed to pay the cruise company $35 million this month. Subscribers to [...]
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Hydroxycut® Litigation
Date: May 21, 2009
Time: 2:00-3:40 pm ET
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