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Litigation Support Services

BPA has provided expert witness support for plaintiffs and defendants in large-scale, complex litigation for over a decade. BPA executives have significant deposition and testimony experience in federal and state court, US Bankruptcy Court (both Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 cases), US Tax Court, and the American Arbitration Association.

BPA’s recent work has been in the mortgage finance, auto finance, education finance, and charged-off receivables sectors, many times in distressed situations. Often our work involves:

  • Evaluating loan portfolio performance and potential damage
  • Assessing loan origination quality and compliance
  • Evaluating loan servicing performance and compliance
  • Conducting damage assessments from inappropriate professional and corporate conduct

Recent litigation services include:

  • Valuation of securitization residuals and securitization tranches
  • Servicing portfolio valuation
  • Developing sampling methods for large loan portfolios
  • Loan servicing quality and compliance with pooling and servicing agreements
  • Compliance of loan underwriting to guidelines and representations and warranties
  • Financial statement reporting of securitization residual valuations
  • Corporate conduct

Examples of BPA expert witness cases include:

    • Issues – alleged misrepresentation of the value of 15 non-prime mortgage securitization residuals contributed in an exchange, resulting in overstated financial statement valuation

    • What BPA did – performed valuation of securitization residuals and related assets. Became asset manager for holding company; supervised three servicers; sold most residuals. Subsequently became fact witness and then expert for holding company. Underlying loan portfolio $3+ billion

    • Deposition and testimony– BPA was deposed four times, both as fact witness and as expert witness
    • Issues – management misrepresented the value of residuals and subordinated certificates in over 100 securitizations, overstated asset values in public filings and in investor presentations

    • What BPA did – fast-track engagement; evaluated servicing compliance with pooling and servicing agreements; evaluated the impact of non-standard servicing actions on securitization portfolio cash flows and residual valuations; evaluated impact of undisclosed corporate guarantees on residual cash flows and valuation levels; compared the company business model to industry norms; quantified damage amounts; wrote an expert report

    • Deposition and testimony– BPA management was deposed. The case settled prior to trial
    • Issues – errors and omissions policy claim had been denied relative to certain mortgage loan transactions that should have been covered

    • What BPA did – performed a representation and warranty review of a selected sample of mortgage loans. For each loan, it determined the specific nature of defective underwriting, quantified damages, and wrote an expert report

    • Deposition and testimony – BPA management was deposed as an expert witness. The case settled prior to trial