Expert Witness Blog

In Avoiding the $475,000 Mistake – Entering the Credit Bid attorney John L. Hosack, Buchalter Nemer, and mortgages expert witness Joffrey Long write:

Finally! The delays are over and your foreclosure is going to sale. The trustee asks for bidding instructions. The grand total owing on your loan (a first trust deed) is $575,000. The value of the property is $500,000. Would you open the bidding at $575,000? It could be a big mistake. Surprisingly, many otherwise sophisticated lenders and servicers, including large banks, are completely unaware of this problem.

At the opposite extreme, there’s another challenge. It occurs when a lender/servicer who is owed $575,000 opens the bidding at a minimal sum, such as $2,000, that has no relationship to the equity being auctioned.

Liability insurance expert witnesses may write reports and opine on commercial liability policies, professional liability insurance, and small business liability insurance. On the website Everything Small Business, find the article Small Business Liability Insurance – The 4 Types That You Need To Protect Your Business:

2. Product liability insurance protects your company against defective products you may produce. If you have a company that manufacturers products or comes up with prototypes, you may need product liability insurance. Sometimes, unfortunately, products can result in injuries, deaths, and accidents. Depending on the risk of the product is how much you would need, and this would have to be determined by the insurance agent and your attorney, as well as the owners.

Read more: everythingsmallbusiness.com.

Insurance fraud expert witnesses may testify on insurance claims, insurance regulations, and associated matters. On their website, the Coalition Against Insurance Fraud writes:

Why Is Fraud So Big?

Insurers sometimes back off. Most insurance companies take a tough stand against fraud, but some companies unwittingly encourage fraud by paying suspicious claims too easily. These companies believe it’s cheaper to pay some smaller suspect claims than fight in court, and a quick payoff also may avoid multimillion-dollar lawsuits for bad faith.

Marketing expert witness Don E. Smith, President, American Consulting Group, LLC, writes on THE LIMITATIONS OF USING SALES QUOTAS AS THE PRIMARY MEASURE OF PERFORMANCE:

Define their capability. Focus on securing information that is meaningful to being an effective distributor for your line. Calculate indexes based on national average or similar distributors. Keep it simple. Page 3, table 3, Capability Index.

1. Personnel: Outside sales, customer service, field service. Total # of each available for your line. Sales/employee for each.

Commercial insurance expert witnesses may testify and write reports on commercial liability policies, professional liability insurance, agent errors and omissions, and associated matters. Here, the law firm of Kunz, Plitt, Hyland & Demlong writes on commercial insurance:

Businesses may choose to purchase business interruption insurance, which pays for the cost of employee salaries and other expenses if the business cannot operate when the premises are damaged. Most businesses are required by law to carry some form of workers’ compensation insurance, which compensates employees who are injured while performing their job duties. Businesses also may have other unique insurance needs.

When a business buys a policy to protect itself against liability, it is likely to be a “CGL” (commercial general liability) policy. This type of policy pays for many types of risks that might cause the business to be liable to a third party. Coverage under a CGL policy usually includes such risks as personal injury claims brought by customers injured on the business premises or by the business’s products. A policy also may provide coverage to protect against libel or slander lawsuits filed by a competitor.

On his website, trucking safety expert witness Lew Grill, the SAGE Corporation, offers a Bridge Formula Weights Calculator:

Federal law states that two or more consecutive axles may not exceed the weight computed by the Bridge Formula even though single axles, tandem axles, and gross vehicle weights are within legal limits. As a result, the axle group that includes the entire truck-sometimes called the “outer bridge” group-must comply with the Bridge Formula. Interior combinations of axles, such as the “tractor bridge” (axles 1, 2, and 3) and “trailer bridge” (axles 2, 3, 4, and 5) must also comply with weights computed by the Bridge Formula (see figure). More detailed information on the Bridge Formula is available at www.ops.fhwa.dot.gov/freight/size_weight.htm.

Insurance claims expert witnesses may testify on insurance adjusters, insurance agencies, and insurance policies. Here, United Policyholders, a non-profit organization and information resource writes on their over 300 amicus briefs advocating for policyholders.
Open the link below to see summaries of briefs filed in the US Supreme Court, and high courts in California, New York, Texas and Utah. Visit the Amicus Project Library to view the complete list and read the summaries and full text of the briefs.

http://uphelp.org/library/amicus-project-update/2010-05-01

Liability insurance expert witnesses may write reports and opine on commercial liability policies, professional liability insurance, and small business liability insurance. On the website Everything Small Business, find the article Small Business Liability Insurance – The 4 Types That You Need To Protect Your Business:

1. General liability insurance protects you against general liability claims as is described in the name. It protects against libel and slander, negligence that results in injuries, property damage caused by an worker, bodily injuries to customers, visitors, customers, workers, or anyone else coming onto your property (FYI, even “trespassers” on your property can sue for bodily injuries incurred on your property, even if they were not legally supposed to be there!) and can even cover infringement on intellectual property.

Purchase this kind of plan if your business needs protection against any of these types of claims (and if you are an astute business person, you will want to be protected every way possible.)

In Guaranteed Maximum Contracts construction expert witness Paul Gogulski explains the the G-Max contract:

The downside also needs stating. G-Max contracts require more work on the owner’s part to administer. The main effort involves defining what is cost. And if you are not interested in collecting discounts, obtaining credits for small tools, establishing realistic labor rates, monitoring rentals, and are not really prepared to act as a partner with your contractor in the project, then this program is not for you. Don’t try this if you don’t have a strong administrator experienced in general contracting. Contractors resent inexperienced owners questioning their decisions, and they certainly aren’t eager to have their books audited by anyone they don’t trust. Properly set-up and administered however, G-Max contracts are a win-win situation.”