Winter 2001/02 issue of the Expert Witness newsletter (volume 6, issue 4)

Contents: Selecting the Discount Rate – An Update by Christopher Bruce, Derek Aldridge, Scott Beesley, and Kelly Rathje In this article the consultants at Economica have combined to review the most recent information concerning the “discount rate;” that is, the rate of interest at which plaintiffs are assumed to invest their award. Destruction of evidence […]

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The awarding of costs and payment of legal fees in a case brought before the Court: is there a potential injustice?

This article shows that there may be a potential injustice due to the tax treatment of an employee-plaintiff versus a corporate-defendant. We show that the costs imposed on a losing employee-plaintiff impose a greater burden than the same level of costs imposed on a losing corporate defendant. This is because the employee-plaintiff must such pay costs with after-tax dollars, but the corporate defendant can use before-tax dollars.

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Destruction of evidence

In this article Christopher Bruce discusses situations in which information required to establish negligence remains in the possession of one of the parties. In the absence of any penalties, a party who believes that this evidence may suggest that he or she should be held liable will have an incentive to destroy the evidence.

The purpose of Dr. Bruce’s article is to develop a model of the legal process that will offer insight into the determination of legal remedies for the destruction of evidence by a defendant. He bases this model on the assumption that the first role of such remedies must be to discourage the defendant from destroying any information that might reasonably be expected to assist the court in the determination of liability.

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