AR123-WEB - Expert Witness Engagements: From First Contact through Payment

Registration

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Webinar Course Description

Litigation engagements are different from regular appraisal assignments. The appraiser must be aware of the legal privileges that apply to communications and properly document those communications. All communications with the client and attorney are discoverable. Conflicts must be considered and tracked before committing to an assignment. Engagement letters should be drafted with a view to necessary provisions and the fact that they will be produced in discovery and possibly used as a road map to deposition interrogation. 

Course Audience

Experienced appraisers who are interested in or retained for litigation matters.

Instructor Information

Brian P. Brinig , ASA | CBIZ Brinig Taylor Zimmer

Brian Peter Brinig, ASA, is an appraiser, a certified public accountant and non-practicing lawyer who has been performing business valuations and economic damages analyses for forty years. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Diego School of Law who founded a valuation firm in 1983 that was recently acquired by CBIZ-MHM, LLC. Brinig remains a Managing Director at CBIZ. Brian is the author of five technical books including Finance & Accounting for Lawyers, a legal textbook used as the basis for the graduate law class of the same title. Brian has testified as an economic expert witness in more than 100 jury trials across the United States in the last forty years.

Agenda

• Initial communications with counsel
• Managing the communication
• Exposure to conflict
• Discoverability
• How to ID a bad attorney?
• Expert witness vs consulting expert
• Ask for pleadings?
• Do you want this assignment?
• Background, education and experience
• Timing of assignment
• Professional fees
• Capability of counsel (organization, client control, experience)
• Conflicts of interest
• Definition of conflict
• Tracking systems
• How to get conflicted out of a case
• Consequence of violating conflict
• Joint retention engagements
• Special considerations
• Methods of communication
• Fee issues Draft reports
• Engagement letters
• Who is the client?
• Defining Scope of Work (3 of the 7: intended use, client, intended users)
• Changes in Scope of Work
• Document requests Fee provisions (retainers, evergreen retainers)
• Review expert disclosure
• Max damages
• Provisions to resign from engagement (non-payment, changing counsel)
• Arbitration provisions
• E&O policy
• Fee issues and billing
• Retainers (if you can’t get one, what’s your first clue?)
• Fee estimates (“not to exceed”)
• Requiring payment before report/testimony
• Higher billing rate for testifying?
• Documentation
• File organization
• Indexing system
• Cross-referencing
• Materials received from counsel and / or client
• Electronic files & pagination => hard copy for testimony
• Critical aspects of litigation files
• Quality control review – using other ASA members
• Review notes
• Marginalia
• Post-it notes
• Developing your appraisal opinion
• “F.A.R.C.” methodology:
• Facts
• Assumptions
• Rationale
• Conclusion

Discussion will also include changing scope of work, working with counsel, document management, fees & payment, and quality control.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course,students will be able to:

• Define, summarize and explain the legal privileges applicable to appraisal work in litigation support and their effect on oral and written communications;
• Identify and discuss  the conflicts of interest in litigation related matters.  What is a conflict?  What cases can you accept and which must you decline?;
• Discuss and explain the strategies for initial communications with client and counsel;
• Analyze engagement letter issues:  who is the client?; description of assignment; fee provisions; arbitration considerations; limitation of liability; and
• Outline file documentation procedures essential for litigation matters.