In my 20-plus years of assessing damages in personal and business disputes, I have been involved in many different types of cases. In some cases, discovery takes a scorched-earth approach, and in others, it takes "a scorched earth, and then some" approach. However, what I find is that while a significant amount of discovery is focused on liability, damages are almost an afterthought. And in some cases, there simply is not enough information or the right information to support and/or to refute a damage assessment. Making this situation worse, damages experts are sometimes not engaged until after discovery, and at that point they cannot assist in identifying and requesting important damages-related information.
In Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise pleads with Cuba Gooding Jr., "Help me, help you." This rings true for economic experts and damages discovery. A well-thought-out approach to damages discovery with the assistance of a qualified and experienced forensic accountant or forensic economist can help counsel and their clients build or refute their damages case. For plaintiffs, this leads to damages that can better withstand the scrutiny of the defense and its experts. For defendants, this leads to insights about potential weaknesses of the plaintiff's damages case, and possibly irrefutable evidence that a claimed loss is not nearly as great as the plaintiff may claim or, more importantly, believe.
