Just my two cents also.

Are you sure your husband was required to write up the QDRO or did the judge
just declare that the assets should be transferred? I have never seen a
judge declare that assets be transferred and declare the person forced to
hand over the assets should also be forced to pay someone to execute the
order. In every instance it was the recipient who was required to initiate
the transfer whether it was just a simple paperwork request or an actual
QDRO.

I would suggest you have an attorney who was NOT your divorce attorney
handle your case. I've seen estimates of close to 50% of all QDRO's are
never written up and executed. Attorney's I've spoken with on this subject
tell me that if a client doesn't pay them in advance or doesn't make their
final payment on the divorce settlement - they will NOT file the QDRO
because it is a pain in the neck.

You may also want to contact a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst to look
into your case. They are experts at just this sort of thing and will do
court testimony if required. A CDFA is not a replacement for an attorney -
just extra help who can often save you legal bills by doing some work a lot
cheaper.


"Tad Borek" <borekfm[at]pacbell.net> wrote in message
news:Kin%c.17164$q73.14964[at]newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
- quote -

SECLaw wrote:
- quote -

Mark (& Kath),
I agree, I don't know why the attorney wouldn't do the legwork in
finding the expert unless she for some reason had some connections to
tap into (other than MIFP!). And it seems the whole issue over the
stock's future prospects might be an unnecessary tangent, so that type
of expert might not even be necessary.

There might be a statute of limitations issue as this was a Jan 2001
transfer, but I have no idea what the law is in NY on this kind of
thing. I was wondering though if there was some cause of action that's
barred and the fall-back is another that requires this expert. But I
can't even come up with that scenario.

-Tad
(CA attorney)

[PS Mark, I really like your site, it's been a bookmark of mine for years]

Just adding my two cents here, Kath's dispute is apparently with her
ex-husband who was supposed to transfer the shares and did not do so.
Presumably there is no arbitration agreement with the husband, and
there can be no arbitration unless all parties consent.

That puts her in court over the dispute. She also mentioned that her
lawyer suggested that she find an expert, and that is the real reason
for my message. Why in the world is her attorney telling HER to find
an expert? HE should be finding the expert witness.

As for her original question, it seems to me that the expert she needs
is a "damage expert" - someone who can evaluate the stock's pricing,
and make a calculation of what it was worth on the date of supposed
transfer, and the value on the date that will be used to calculate
damages. That date may or many not be the date she filed suit, which
is something her attorney needs to decide, which is why the attorney
should be doing the leg work for the expert, not her.

There are plenty of well qualified expert witnesses who can make that
determination and provide the expert testimony and backup
documentation. Kath, if you contact me by email I can give you a few
names to contact.

If the dispute involves a brokerage firm, then she can take the
brokerage firm to arbitration, as they are required to arbitrate all
disputes if the customer requests. The expert witness issue remains
the same.

Mark Astarita
astarita[at]seclaw.com
The Securities Law Home Page - www.seclaw.com



"Cal Lester" <cal-lester[at]comcast.net> wrote in message news:<COvZc.274117$eM2.57523[at]attbi_s51> ...
- quote -

- quote -

never happened, and now the stock is worth pennies a share. If that's the case
then I don't know that you'd need to prove any of the things you've mentioned,
it's not really a securities-law question at that point. If there was a court
order to transfer Asset X of value $Y by a certain date and the transfer wasn't
done then your whole cause of action is on different grounds.
Those are my guesses...what's the story?
<

Story is; my former spouse was to have transferred shares (held in his name
only through Datek) to me in accordance with the property settlement agreement
(NYS Divorce) in January 2001.

2001 came and went, my dummy account went unfunded, my counsel did nothing, the
stock continued to fall as did all tech stocks, but this one in particular did
so poorly, it was going to be delisted from the NASDAQ after it fell to below
one dollar and subsequentley went through the 20-1 reverse split in 2003. I've
since obtained new counsel who has suggested I find an expert witness to
testify that this stock has virtually no chance of a rebound.
We are dealing with a loss of nearly 80K.

I'm curious as to whether or not I've lost out on other things aside from the
ability to sell my shares when they were worth something such as tax write offs
from losses in value(?).

What we aren't dealing with is other assests such as Mutuals and a 401K which
the property settlement agreement clearly states was subject to market
flucuation, and required QDRO's. The stocks were the only asset that didn't
mention either of the above and were to be a direct person to person transfer
(for lack of a better term.) I really don't know if I am qualified/educated
enough on the big picture to tesitfy on my own behalf without a so called
"expert witness". Thank to all who have replied, you've been most helpful in
this mess.

Kath

- quote -

Given that the original poster uses "Kath" for a name, I'm assuming she is
female. So this suggests to me that the "court ordered" transfer was a
divorce decree. I'm a torts lawyer, not a domestic relations guy. But
usually when a court orders something to be done, it sets a deadline. If
the person ordered to do whatever drops the ball, the remedy is to ask the
court to hold him in contempt. Why is Kath just now looking to litigate
over something the ex failed to do more than three years ago?

- quote -

This, to me, seems simple. Suppose the court-ordered deadline for the
transfer was Jan. 30 2001, but the ex failed to make the transfer. Now
it's Sept. of 2004, so the ex owes Kath an amount equal to the value of
the securities as of that date. Why expert testimony would be required is
unclear.

Of course, as other posters have noted, we don't have all the facts. Why
didn't the ex make the transfer? Was this a position worth millions? Or
something too small to be worth litigating over? If the original position
was wiped out when the tech bubble crashed, does the ex now have
sufficient assets to satisfy a judgment? Assuming he does, and the court
orders him to pay Kath, will he try to stiff her again?

So obviously this is WAY more complex than I make it out to be. No offense
to Kath, but this is a pet peeve of mine -- both as an attorney and as a
Usenet junkie. If you have a lawyer (and I'm assuming Kath does) you
should NOT be seeking legal advice on the Net. And if you don't have a
lawyer, it's impossible to get any useful legal advice off the Net except
for the simplest things. Perhaps I'm suffering from a coffee shortage
today, but asking these half-baked questions IMHO is almost as bad as
trolling.

JustKathHere wrote:
- quote -

Kath,
Still unclear here...

If the claim is for "damages resulting from failure to execute a
transfer" then a lot depends on who was supposed to do the transfer and
why it didn't happen.

If this was a stock held in a brokerage account, and you called your
broker and said "transfer this stock from point A to B" and provided the
necessary paperwork, and for some reason the broker didn't execute the
transfer, then your issue is with the broker and perhaps the brokerage
firm. In that case you're forced by your account agreement into
arbitration through NASD Dispute Resolution, rather than going to court.
If the claim amount is relatively small you might not even have a
hearing, if it's large then you probably need an attorney because your
opponent will certainly have one.

But in that case I don't know why a later reverse-split would be at all
relevant. This issue seems to be failure to execute a client instruction.

OK scenario 1b, you did the above but were talked out of doing the
transfer based on some nonsense about how a reverse-split was a good
thing. And now you're alleging that the advice was bad and you lost
money as a result. Again, you'd be in arbitration, and if your case is
big enough to merit an expert witness it's probably big enough to
justify an attorney.

My last guess is that this might be a transfer of a stock from a former
spouse's account? Where you intended to sell it upon receipt, but the
transfer never happened, and now the stock is worth pennies a share. If
that's the case then I don't know that you'd need to prove any of the
things you've mentioned, it's not really a securities-law question at
that point. If there was a court order to transfer Asset X of value $Y
by a certain date and the transfer wasn't done then your whole cause of
action is on different grounds.

Those are my guesses...what's the story?

-Tad

"JustKathHere" <justkathhere[at]aol.comeOnNow> wrote in message news:20040901225038.03232.00000120[at]mb-m19.aol.com...

- quote -

case, that you discuss this with "competent Counsel". You should
most definitely NOT be going into court with one.

You mention "another individual". IF that individual has ANY form
of LICENSE to sell or trade stocks in ANY way, then you should in
all probability be going to the NASD Dispute Resolution. You may
want to check out this link, to learn a bit more.
Cal


http://www.nasdadr.com/

"JustKathHere" <justkathhere[at]aol.comeOnNow> wrote in message news:20040901181323.27025.00000153[at]mb-m13.aol.com...
- quote -

this with your Legal Counsel. You mention going into Court. I would
hope that you do NOT intend to do that without Legal Counsel.

In addition, it is my understanding, that if you have a conflict with a
Broker or a Stock Market Salesperson, that your grievance should
first be brought to the N.A.S.D. Dispute Resolution.....

Cal Lester CLU

- quote -


- quote -


- quote -

Thank you - I am sorry my question was so vague as I didn't realize more info
was needed. It would be expertise in regard to a stock held on the NASDAQ that
used to be worth a good sum of money and was court ordered to be transferred to
me in January 2001 and never was. What I am looking for is someone who knows
stocks inside and out, can testify to its value then and now, and that the
bottom line of a stock that went through a 20-1 reverse split to avoid being
delisted will likely never recoup its value. This suit is against another
individual for failure to execute the transfer and has nothing to do with
corporations, etc. Hope that helps and thank you for your time.

Kath

JustKathHere wrote:
- quote -

Kath,
In addition to Rich's questions - you say "court", how are you going to
court? Do you mean arbitration? Do you have an attorney?

Expert witnesses are expensive to hire, so they're used in cases where
the damages are high enough to justify them. And with that kind of case
you typically are represented by an attorney who would find the expert
for you. They're out there, and there are directories of them out there,
but it seems it would be an unusual case where you went in lawyer-less
yet spent the money on expert-witness prep and testimony.

-Tad

Greetings,
I am in need of someone who has expertise specifically in the stock
market and is familiar with appearing in court as an expert witness. Can
someone advise me as to what type of financial *person* I would be best to
hire?
Am I better of with a planner, analyst, stock broker, or other?

Thank you
Kath

justkathhere[at]aol.comeOnNow (JustKathHere) writes:

- quote -

What do you mean by "expertise [...] in the stock market"?

Do you mean someone with expertise on how the stock markets
(NYSE, Nasdaq, etc.) operate?

Do you mean someone with expertise in analyzing the financials
of companies?

Do you mean someone with expertise in corporate governance?

Do you mean someone with expertise in developing appropriate
portfolios for someone in a given financial situation?

Do you mean someone with expertise in the fiduciary responsibility
brokerage houses owe to their customers?

Please be more specific.

--
Rich Carreiro rlcarr[at]animato.arlington.ma.us