New Jersey Forensic Accountant Explains the Two Most Commonly Asked Questions in Court

New Jersey Forensic Accounting Specialist Robert A. Bonavito Explains the Two Most Commonly Asked Questions in Court: "Slippery Slope" and "Ad Hominem". I've been in court. I've had my depositions taken (arbitrations and mediations) over 2,000 times, and the two questions I get that are always of great interest to me when I'm in one of these situations is what I call the "Slippery Slope" question and the "Ad Hominem" question. And the way that lawyers ask these questions is always interesting and amusing to me - and the juries like it and the judges like it. So, I'm going to talk about these two questions. The first one is the "Slippery Slope." And, usually, how the attorneys ask this question. Let's say it's a car dealership and they want to substantiate. They want to show that the car dealership is making a lot of money - or CAN make a lot of money. They'll say, "Well, Mr. Bonavito, is it possible that this company can sell 100 cars per week?" Well, obviously, anything's possible, so I'll say, "Yes, it's possible." Then, they'll say, "Well, if they make $1,000 on 500 cars per week, how much will they make?" "Well, they'll make $500,000." "Well, Mr. Bonavito, doesn't that come out to $26 million a year?" "Yes it does." They love to ask these types of questions to me. They don't usually make any sense. They waste time but I have to go through it and I have to answer them because, obviously, I'm an expert, and so when I get these "Slippery Slope" questions, there's things I do and say that we're not going to get into here, but these questions, I mean, usually, I don't think they're any good to anybody, but it's an exercise I often have to go through. The other question is the "Ad Hominem" argument. And what this is, let's say, we do these reports and we testify, and they'll come into court in a deposition or arbitration, and they'll attack me, or they'll attack the company. They'll attack somebody else. They won't even mention the report. And that's what an "Ad Hominem" argument is. And, again, I'm at a loss as to why they would do this, but it happens a lot. I think the reason they're doing this is that they really don't have any good questions or really good arguments to counter the report. So, if you do a lot of court testimony like I do, then expect these two questions. If you have any questions on this, feel free to email me or learn more about forensic accounting at http://www.rabcpafirm.com/practices/forensic-accounting/?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_content=XAMeSL0erIQ. Robert A. Bonavito, CPA 1812 Front St. Scotch Plains, NJ 07076 908-322-7719 http://www.rabcpafirm.com/?utm_source=youtube.com&utm_content=XAMeSL0erIQ