Of Note

The purpose of this blog is to highlight matters of importance and interesting tidbits of information that are relevant to attorneys, accountants and others who provide or support litigation and dispute resolution services. I have provided consultative support and expert witness services on a number of cases in California and also audited many private companies and a number of public companies traded on the American, NASDAQ, and OTC:BB stock exchanges. In addition, my real life experiences add to my professional background including being an owner of a tie-dye company (really!), President of the Board of the Names Project (The AIDS Quilt), CFO of a Chinese high technology company and founder of a food distribution program in San Francisco. Life is for the living folks, and I expect to continue living voraciously.

So a story for today:

I was cross-examined at a Dispute Resolution and Mediation Center by an attorney who was obviously frustrated by the inconsistencies of his client, the defendant. I too had taken awhile to reach my conclusions as the initial information received from the plaintiff and his attorney didn't quite jibe with the independent accounting information I obtained. The truth does always seem to prevail though, and after a time I discerned the truth (or at least the truth I could support) regarding the plaintiff's damages and artfully presented my findings in my report.

It was difficult at first to get the plaintiff to accept my calculations as he had envisioned a damages amount many times higher than the amount I showed in my report but once his attorney had a chance to question my findings, the attorney accepted the damages calculation without change.

At a break, right before the judge was to conclude the oral presentations, the judge and I happened upon each other at the coffee pot and he said to me: " Don't these two SOBs really deserve each other?". How I love working with a rent-a-judge! Anyway, my client prevailed and the judge upheld, to a large degree, my damage calculations. I guess, even among SOBs, the truth shall prevail. But SOBS being SOBS, as soon as the award was announced, the defendant took the next plane out of the country and was never seen in the United States again. The plaintiff never collected a dime and I could not collect the balance of my fees. I guess these two guys really did deserve each other.