Valuation & Litigation Advisory Blog

This month's issue of Valuation & Litigation Advisory Insights includes the following articles:

• Just Awards – Construct a Framework When Assessing Damages
• Defense Damages Experts: Developing a Winning Strategy
• Reasonable Royalty Calculations Demand Sound Expert Analysis

Just awards: Construct a framework when assessing damages

Almost daily, jurors award huge damages to plaintiffs. But are these jurors making informed decisions? One of the most important contributions a financial expert can make in damages litigation is to construct a framework the jury can use when assessing the damages. This article discusses how a CPA expert can help explain the nuances of a business’s profits, assets, net worth and internal structure.

Defense damages experts: Developing a winning strategy

In cases involving monetary damages, a critical strategic decision for the defense is whether to engage a damages expert. It may seem inadvisable to let the plaintiff’s damages calculations go uncontested, but presenting one’s own damages evidence can send mixed signals to the jury, particularly if liability is being denied. This article lists three options the defense has, and looks at two cases that illustrate the potential risks and rewards of challenging the plaintiff’s damages expert without presenting an alternative damages estimate.

Reasonable royalty calculations demand sound expert analysis

Federal courts are cracking down on what they see as sloppy practices in calculating reasonable royalty damages in patent infringement cases. This article looks at one case in which an appeals court threw out an award of more than $500,000 and remanded the case for redetermination of damages. It explains the factors that led the court to determine that the award "relied on speculative and unreliable evidence divorced from proof of economic harm linked to the claimed invention."

Prior issues are available in the E-Newsletter Archive of our Valuation & Litigation Advisory Services Resource Center. If you would like to subscribe to this free, monthly, business valuation and litigation support e-newsletter, send an email to info@skodaminotti.com.

If you have any questions about any of these articles, post a comment below or please contact our Valuation & Litigation Advisory Services Group at 440-449-6800.