A Dispute Resolution Primer

This chapter discusses how various litigation experts have the quantitative skills required to undertake and perform the analyses necessary to interpret the technical evidence required in complex commercial cases. Attorneys most often retain experts to compute or rebut the plaintiff's damages claim for loss resulting from the defendant's alleged legal wrong. They also provide analysis and testimony on liability issues where their expertise suits them to prepare relevant analyses or to discuss compliance with professional standards in malpractice and similar cases. Parties have a right to appeal a decision at a trial court to the first level of the appellate process in either state or federal courts. Courts of appeal can sustain the lower court's decision, reverse it, or partially sustain and partially reverse it. They can remand the case for retrial on whatever issues they consider appropriate and, in certain circumstances, resolve the matter with a trial de novo, an unusual proceeding in which the appeals court in effect retries the case itself based on the original trial record. The federal circuit courts hear appeals from district court decisions. The trial court jurisdiction dictates the appellate court jurisdiction. A federal court of appeals will accept appeals only from district courts in its circuit, with specifi c exceptions that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit hears.