Articles Posted in Expert Witness News

A computer expert witness opined on the computer irregularities in the city of Sarasota, FL’s IT system. The consultant said some files are missing, data that should have been private was not, and emails were erased. City Manager Robert Bartolotta has denied any wrongdoing.

In United States: Section 1782 Discovery Ordered Against Chevron’s Environmental Expert For Use In UNCITRAL Arbitration Relating To Ecuador, Louis M. Solomon, Chairman of the Commercial and International Litigation Groups and Co-Chairman of the Litigation Department at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, writes:

A decision from a Magistrate Judge in Colorado includes some useful learning on international practice under 28 U.S.C. Section 1782.

Read more: mondaq.com.

Expert witnesses for R. Allen Stanford have resigned because they haven’t been paid. Stanford, former head of the Stanford Financial Group, is facing charges for allegedly taking $7 billion from investors. Stanford’s attorney asked the U.S. District judge to postpone his trial.

Douglas Lovell’s attorneys requested that hearings relating to expert witnesses be held behind closed doors without prosecutors. Lovell is on death row for the death of Joyce Yost in 1985. His defense attorney argued in Utah 2nd Judicial District that including prosecutors would give the state insight into the defense strategy.

Read more: scholar.google.com.

Compensation expert witness Dr. Sanjai Bhagat presented his paper Bank Executive Compensation And Capital Requirements Reform this month to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington DC.

Abstract, Part 2

We recommend the following compensation structure for senior bank executives: Executive incentive compensation should only consist of restricted stock and restricted stock options – restricted in the sense that the executive cannot sell the shares or exercise the options for two to four years after their last day in office.

At Daily Herald.com , Barry Stone writes:

Q. I am a court-certified expert witness in construction defect lawsuits. Many of the cases I see involve home inspectors who fail to disclose defects. One inspector confided that an inspection report with “too many problems” might “kill” the sale, and then the agent would stop recommending him to buyers.

Compensation expert witness Dr. Sanjai Bhagat presented his paper Bank Executive Compensation And Capital Requirements Reform this month to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Washington DC.

Abstract Part 2:

We study the executive compensation structure in the largest 14 U.S. financial institutions during 2000-2008. We focus on the CEO’s buys and sells of their bank’s stock, purchase of stock via option exercise, and their salary and bonus during 2000-2008. We consider the capital losses these CEOs incur due to the dramatic share price declines in 2008. We consider the shareholder returns for these 14 banks. Finally, we consider three measures of risk-taking by these banks: (a) the bank’s Z-score, (b) the bank’s asset write-downs, and (c) whether or not a bank borrows capital from various Fed bailout programs, and the amount of such capital.

Google Inc has announced it will hook up Kansas City, Kan., and then Kansas City, Mo., local computers to enhanced internet service. Media expert witness Larry Gerbrandt, an analyst for Media Valuation Partners and a former cable operator, says, “One market doesn’t change things. Even Google doesn’t have enough money to wire the country.” Media Valuation Partners MVP specializes in understanding how value is created and monetized in the media, entertainment, mobile and emerging technology sectors.

In the mid-1960s President Johnson envisioned the Urban Institute, chartered in 1968 to provide “independent nonpartisan analysis of the problems facing America’s cities and their residents.” This month, insurance coverage experts at the Urban Institute write on Changes in Health Insurance Coverage in the Great Recession, 2007-2010, published by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured:

The number of uninsured nonelderly Americans reached over 49 million in 2010, an increase of nearly a million people since 2009. This increase continues a trend of rising uninsurance over the past decade. Among the nonelderly, rates of employer-sponsored coverage have declined from 2000 to 2010. While public coverage through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has filled in some of the gap in coverage, rising throughout the decade, it has not offset all of the loss in private coverage. As a result, both the number and share of the population without health coverage have grown since 2000.

Read more: kaisercommission.

Risk management expert Mike Prusinski, senior vice president of LifeLock, comments on the DOJ study warning the public to be more careful of Social Security numbers and debit cards being stolen: benningtonbanner.com.