Life Cycle of a Case: Pear TV Damages Litigation
Much of Analysis Group’s work is related to litigation. A lot happens before a case reaches a judge or jury, however. Pear TV Damages Litigation demonstrates what analysts and associates might expect as part of an Analysis Group case team.
The Dispute
Have you ever had a favorite show disappear from your streaming platforms? Pay-TV providers contract with television networks for the right to stream channels or content. When the contract negotiations fall through, the content is no longer available on the provider’s platform.
In this mock case, Analysis Group has been retained by counsel for Pear TV, a streaming platform whose renewal negotiations with Neon Network recently failed. As a result of this failure, all Neon Network channels were blacked out for Pear TV subscribers for two weeks. Analysis Group will support an expert hired by Pear TV to quantify the harm to Pear TV’s business. Did the blackout cause subscribers to leave? If so, how many, and at what cost to Pear TV? Can Neon Network be held accountable for damages?
Let’s find out what a case team does at Analysis Group.
Case Timeline
Once Analysis Group’s role in a case is confirmed, a partner collaborates with a manager or vice president to build a case team. The case leaders then reach out to associates, analysts, data scientists, and others – often considering particular skills and past experience – until the team is complete. A team can number anywhere from three to 60 people, depending on the size or speed of the case, but it’s usually no more than 10.
Analysis Group operates on a “one firm” model. A case team might include consultants from our offices in Boston, San Francisco, Montreal, and Paris, if they are the best people for the job. Regional offices are not in competition with each other. The firm also emphasizes an “internal labor market.” All offices have staffing coordinators who are dedicated to aligning individual skill sets and interests with appropriate case work. Additionally, whenever possible, case leaders will match consultants’ skills, abilities, and interests to particular case work opportunities. In turn, consultants are expected to be transparent about their interests and availability, and to contribute to case teams in a variety of roles. This internal market emphasizes individual choice as well as personal responsibility for career development.
This case team will prepare an expert to file an expert report and, if necessary, to testify at a deposition and/or trial.
To start, the case team briefs the expert on prior pay-TV disputes involving service blackouts. Then, counsel provides a vast amount of data – sometimes multiple terabytes – on Pear TV subscriber trends to the case team. The case team “cleans” the data for duplicates and other confounding factors.
With the data in manageable form, the “exploration” phase begins – seeing what the data yield.
Exploration is the foundation of economic modeling. Since analysts and associates work directly with the data, they are able to drive decisions on which analytical models are most appropriate to the dispute and to keep the team informed on what they are finding. The exploration phase involves a lot of collaboration with the expert and Pear TV’s counsel, changing tactics as needed.
Once analyses are complete, the case team begins to stress-test the methodology by anticipating critiques from Neon Network. The team might try alternate growth rate assumptions or add alternate data sources in order to provide Pear TV’s counsel with additional estimates.
Finally, the team works with the expert to write a report. Consultants at Analysis Group are expected to have, or learn, a high level of communications skills, particularly in regard to written communication. The report must convey the team’s analyses and the expert’s conclusions in a way that non-economists – including both counsel and triers of fact, such as judges and juries – can understand.
As the court’s deadline approaches, the case team’s work intensifies until – finally – the report has been filed.
Once the report is filed, the case team prepares the Pear TV expert for a rigorous process known as deposition.
Deposition involves numerous hours of questioning from Neon Network’s side about the report, models, methodology, background research, and more. It does not happen at trial; it’s conducted with only the expert witness and the lawyers from both sides present.
In the weeks before deposition, the case team helps the expert prepare with information on relevant data, models tried and abandoned, and analytic reasoning. Analysts and associates are critical to this preparation, as they are often the consultants closest to the data.
When the day arrives, Neon Network’s lawyers question the Analysis Group expert about their past experience, as well as the report and its conclusions.
Sometimes, the case settles after the first deposition and never goes to trial. Neon Network and Pear TV cannot come to an agreement, however. This case will go to trial before a jury.
Testimony at trial involves intense cross-examination in court. In addition to answering more questions from Neon Network’s lawyers, the expert shows “demonstratives” – slides containing simplified excerpts from the expert report – to the jury. Because a jury is made up of laypeople, the case team must ensure that these slides are easy to understand. This time, the case team has prepared the demonstratives ahead of time, in close contact with the expert and counsel.
A senior member of the Analysis Group case team accompanies the expert to trial. Before the expert takes the stand for Pear TV, demonstratives may need adjusting on the fly to respond to points that have come up in previous testimony. While the case team is not in the room, it must be responsive to requests so the expert can present the most relevant information.
Cross-examination is much like we see on television. It is also the peak of everything the case team has worked toward. The jury’s only information comes from the courtroom, so cross-examination often plays a critical role in the resolution of a case. While some questions will be anticipated by the expert and case team members, unexpected issues often arise, counsel can object, and the judge may comment.
Well prepared by the case team, the expert calmly explains the data, the methodology, and the pay-TV industry. Poise is an important quality in an expert, since trial testimony can take anywhere from 20 minutes to five hours.
Following cross-examination, the opposing parties may decide to settle instead of letting the case go to a verdict. The case team members still have plenty to do as the parties negotiate – they may evaluate potential settlement amounts or rerun analyses under a variety of new assumptions.
Pear TV and Neon Network do not settle; the case team awaits the jury’s verdict.
In this case, the jury rules in Pear TV’s favor and the case team celebrates. Because a win is never guaranteed, however, many case teams learn to temper their expectations throughout the trial, which can take anywhere from weeks to years.
Whether teams are crowded into a conference room or meeting virtually across time zones, cases involve intense work and close collaboration. After a break to recover, each consultant moves on to the next case.
