Having extolled the virtues of experts a few weeks ago we have to return to a more critical tone this week. Inspired Education Online Ltd v Crombie was a dispute about the sale of a company that hit the headlines because of the rather lurid ‘banter’ exchanged (internally only) by staff. According to the Claimant this seriously reduced the value of the company and they wanted a substantial sum of money back. That necessitated  valuations of the “warranty false” value by experts, who had to estimate how much it would be worth if said emails became public knowledge and caused scandal.

Unfortunately the experts used fundamentally different methodologies leaving the court, as the judge commented “in the position of having to determine which of the experts is more credible – there is really no middle ground.”