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Finance professor Anjan Thakor testified as an expert witness for the government Tuesday in the resentencing of former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio, who is serving a six-year prison term for illegal insider trading.

Thakor said Nacchio illegally gained as much as $32.9 million from the insider stock sales for which he was convicted in 2007, according to court documents. The gain amount — the portion of the proceeds that can be attributed to the nonpublic information Nacchio based his stock sales on — is a key sentencing factor.

Read more: denverpost.com.

Last Thursday, US District Judge Timothy M. Burgess issued an order for Avis Budget Car Rental LLC to pay Alaska Rent A Car $16 million in damages, following a jury verdict last October. Robert C. Halcro, a 54-year veteran franchisee, started his car rental business in 1955 in Valdez, Alaska.  His legal battle began in 2002 when Cendant Corporation, then parent to the Avis car rental franchisor, acquired and continued to operate competitor Budget Rent A Car. He alleged that the acquisition violated all three of his franchise agreements.

Judge Burgess said of franchise expert witness testimony "The court, having heard the testimony and the evidence presented at trial, independently finds that there was sufficient evidence to support the jury’s verdict.” 

For more, see bluemaumau.org.

Damage assessment experts may opine on the value of property damage:

The amount at which property is valued for purposes of recovery depends on whether the property may be repaired, or whether the property has been destroyed completely. If property may be repaired for a reasonable cost, compensatory damages will cover the costs of repair, as well as any consequential damages suffered in connection with the loss. If the property has been completely destroyed, or if the cost of repair is more than the fair market value of the property, compensatory damages may be limited to the property's fair market value. Fair market value is measured by the value of the property directly before the loss.

For more, see www.justia.com.

Damages experts may opine on these forms of recovery for property damage:

• Compensatory Damages. Compensatory damages are designed to place a victim in the position he or she would be in if the defendant's wrong had never occurred. Compensatory damages include the amount needed to replace or repair the lost or injured property, as well as any costs flowing from the injury (known as consequential damages). Consequential damages may cover the costs of interim replacement property (such as a rental car) as well as any lost profits resulting from the injury.
• Incidental Damages. Incidental damages compensate victims for various expenses incurred as a result of property loss. Incidental damages may include the costs of phone calls, shipping, transportation, etc.
• Punitive Damages. Punitive damages are not awarded to compensate victims for their losses, but rather to punish defendants and deter others from engaging in similar behavior. Punitive damages may not be awarded without compensatory damages and typically cannot exceed ten times the amount of compensatory damages. However, because punitive damages are intended to punish defendants, a jury may consider a defendant's total wealth when calculating a punitive damage award.

 

For more, see http://www.justia.com//.

 

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Racine County and Oracular Milwaukee next month. Oracular was hired to install new human resources and payroll software. When the completion date came and went and the system was only 50 percent installed, the county terminated the contract and sued Oracular in Racine County Circuit Court.

The three questions the Supreme Court is expected to address in its review are:

- whether expert testimony is required to prove a breach of contract claim based on a delay in completion when the work to be completed is complex and interdependent.

- the proper analysis of when something is considered a "profession." Under Wisconsin law, if professional services have a different standard required for termination.

- whether people who provide computer software programming services relating to customized software are "professionals" under Wisconsin law.

For more, see www.journaltimes.com.

A key mortgage modification program facilitated by federal incentives has not only failed to reach the potential envisioned by its founders, but it also has several key flaws that may have destined it for failure from the start, expert witnesses testified to the House Financial Services Committee Tuesday. Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), which allocates capped incentives to servicers, lender/investors and borrowers that participate in modification of mortgages at risk of foreclosure, was a large focus of testimony. 

Real estate finance expert witness Anthony Sanders, professor at George Mason University, testified that "In order to facilitate lasting loan modifications, banks must be allowed to gradually write-off losses and the private sector must be allowed to help modifications."

For more, see housingwire.com.

Warren Buffet's buyout of BNSF has spurred hearings on how and where four cases in Tarrant County, three in Dallas County, and five in Delaware will be consolidated into one class-action lawsuit over the cost of the take over. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway agreed to buy BNSF stock for $100 a share, a 31 percent premium over the previous day’s closing stock market price.

Dallas lawyer Trey Branham said says it’s difficult to predict how the judges will decide where the case should be tried.  Branham said such lawsuits are a way to make sure that small, individual stockholders get a fair return on their investment. The shareholders’ attorneys will seek to have expert witnesses testify that BNSF is worth more than the $100 a share Berkshire has agreed to pay.

For more, see www.star-telegram.com.

The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission is considering the sale of Verizon Northwest's 487,000 local landline telephone consumers to Frontier Communications Inc.  Public Counsel Sarah Shifley, of the state Attorney General's Office, doesn't think the transaction should be approved, saying that the sale of Verizon could result in a "degradation of service quality."  The public counsel represents residential and small business customers of regulated telecommunications companies in actions before the commission. 

In expert witness testimony filed with the commission the public counsel pointed out Frontier may have a weak financial condition due to the amount of debt it would assume if the sale is approved.  The commission staff members also are concerned Frontier could suffer the same fate as other Verizon spin-offs in Hawaii and New England that have resulted in bankruptcies.

Excerpted from blog.seattlepi.com.

A Hall County, Georgia, jury has decided that The Red Hat Club author libeled a former friend in a novel.  On Nov. 19, the jury found that Haywood Smith's bestselling 2003 novel damaged Vicki Stewart because it featured a character who closely resembled Stewart and portrayed her as a sexually promiscuous alcoholic. The jury rejected a claim of invasion of privacy.

The jury of eight men and four women awarded Stewart $100,000 in damages but denied her request for attorney fees. Because Stewart is not a public figure, her attorneys needed to prove only that Smith acted with negligence, not the higher standard of actual malice.

Dean Hugh Ruppersburg, libel expert witness for the defense, said "from the first sentence, the first paragraph of The Red Hat Club, it presented itself to me as a work of fiction."

 

For more, see www.firstamendmentcenter.org

Jury selection will begin in February in the trial of a Bound Brook, NJ, nightclub and its co-owners on charges of not paying state sales taxes.  Borough resident Rafael Rosario and his half-brother Rafael Amaro, of Edison, and their nightclub, El Cafe Imperial, were indicted in June 2007 on nine counts of not paying state sales taxes on products sold at the Talmage Avenue establishment.  Rosario and Amaro are charged with keeping about $100,000 in unpaid taxes for their own use, Somerset County Prosecutor Wayne J. Forrest said at the time of the indictment.  Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Murphy said he had received this week a report from the defense's expert witnesses on the sales-tax issue.

Excerpted from mycentraljersey.com .