AR202 Litigation Services

Hello and welcome to AR202.

We are the instructors for the upcoming AR202 class. We are very excited to be working with you. The main objective for AR202 is to support you in developing an expert witness practice as part of your appraisal and review business. 

This will be a very hands-on class. To ensure that the class is useful to you, please review the following information. This class will be taught in a dialogue format, which may be new to you. This format will involve a great deal of interaction with your peers, who will be professionals from all appraisal disciplines, and the instructors. Please respect everyone's time and participate in all class activities.  Please put any questions you have about the course in the comment section below.

Class uses a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning methods. Students get credit for the time spent in both areas to make up the 27-hours required by The Appraisal Foundation. 

All of the sessions, course materials, and assignments are managed on ASA LMS. The Student Manual is the main document that we will be working with in class, and many find it frustrating to try to manage it on their electronic device along with other materials. We recommend you print out the Student Manual and put it in a binder. The other materials can be left in electronic format.

Synchronous learning are the sessions that occur all at the same time. The course will be taught live on Zoom technology. The ASA Education department can help you with technical support as needed. Please make sure you have a working video camera connected to your computer, good internet speed, good lighting on your face (no back lighting), and a quality microphone. Often the built-in computer camera and microphone are adequate for class purposes providing there is limited background distractions and noise. Participations the your camera on is required for this class. During the class you will use the chat, polls, and breakout rooms to enhance the learning experience.

Asynchronous learning allows you to learn on your own schedule, within a certain timeframe.  The ASA LMS has many required discussions, readings, and prerecorded webinars that are all part of the course. Timely participation in these activities are required in order to attend the follow live (synchronous) session.

Why is this class important to the participants?

1.       Increase income stream:  AR 202 is a hands-on appraisal review class designed to help appraisers with an ARM designation develop their expert witness practice.

Non-appraisers may find this class useful to deepen their understanding of how valuation experts with important specialized knowledge can help attorneys and courts of law understand complex appraisal issues.

Students find great value in the discussion focused on how to present specific issues. By the end of the class, each student will have the practical application knowledge of expert witness practice, including how to develop and market their services to attorneys and others.

2.       Public Trust: There is a need, both nationally and internationally, for consistent, credible and objective appraisal reporting at many levels in the court system.

3.       Legal Applications: Appraisals are frequently challenged; it is therefore critical for appraisers to have the knowledge and skills to present defenses of their own work and objective, understandable reviews of other appraisal reports in ways that are credible, defensible and standards compliant.

The purpose of this course is to support appraisal professionals with high quality training courses on litigation support professional services:

1.       Learning about litigation support services provides opportunities to expand and diversify your business opportunities, improve credibility and become a better appraiser.

2.       Because court ruling such as Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools, Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals and that written expert reports may be considered “heresay evidence,” experts must be prepared to appear in court to provide in-person case-specific testimony.

3.       In the legal system it is critical that appraisers have the knowledge and skills necessary to objectively analyze and review appraisals against a set of established standards in a manner that is defensible and to present those findings clearly in writing and in oral testimony.

4.       The field of appraisal is critical to the smooth functioning of the economy; logical and evidence-based appraisal reports are of critical importance for legal and professional reasons. Regarding these reports, users of appraisal services also need credible, consistent, and objective report reviews and critiques that depend upon rules-based standards to provide critical unbiased objective assessments of appraisal work.

By the end of the course participants will have:

1.       Experienced mock trial testimony in voir dire, depositions, direct, cross and redirect testimony scenarios.

2.       Explained the different phases of a lawsuit and the litigation support professional roll in the court.

3.       Analyzed the qualifications requirements to be a litigation support professional relative to their experience and develop a plan to expand their experience.

4.       Developed a marketing strategy for their litigation support professional business.

5.       Analyzed administrative aspects of litigation support.

6.       Compared and contrasted the various ethics standard and how they relate to the court.

7.       Analyzed different types of correspondence with other parties and how those communication will be treated in the discovery process.

8.       Analyzed the rules of evidence and how valuation services apply to a litigation assignment.

9.       Examined how the USPAP Record Keeping Rule relates to the discovery process.

10.    Contrasted the USPAP Competency Rule with Daubert and Fry Standards and how the impact on their work product.

11.    Demonstrated knowledge and skill in providing expert testimony by participating in practice sessions.

12.    Determined which of the different roles of a litigation support professional they wish to pursue.

J. Mark Penny, FASA, IA, ARM is an accredited appraiser who lives and works outside of Philadelphia, PA. He has served in numerous capacities in ASA at the Chapter level, with the Business Valuation Committee and on the ASA’s Board. ASA was privileged to have him as the International President in 2013-2014 and he currently serves as Vice-Chair of the ARM Committee and as Treasurer of the ASA Education Foundation.

Jack Young ASA, CPA ASA, ARM live in Northern California. He has experience in auditing, accounting, financial analysis and auctioneering. Jack worked for many years as an auctioneer and auction manager of business assets, machinery and equipment.

Jack received his B.S. Accountancy, Arizona State University, in 1988. While in college, he worked at the local mid-sized regional CPA firm Price, Kong & Company preparing monthly financial statements and performing tax work. Upon graduation Jack joined the audit department of international CPA firm KPMG in their Sacramento, California office. As a senior auditor, he worked primarily in the industries of banking, insurance, manufacturing, food processing and distribution. Subsequent to KPMG, Jack was a financial analyst in the insurance and financial services industries.