Imagine that you are a family law associate set to embark on your first cross-examination of a business valuation expert. It can be a daunting task; you are going face-to-face with an expert. And while you have the Rules of Evidence at your disposal to control the witness, see, e.g., N.J.R.E. 611(c), the expert has years of education, training, and experience. Fear not, this article is intended to provide advice to the novice attorney who has not had experience with business valuations.

The first piece of advice, and this pertains to cross-examination of any expert, is that you may never know the core “science” or area of expertise as well as the expert. But you can know enough to be dangerous—you should know more than enough to be very dangerous.