For a long time, most courts denied recovery of lost profits for new businesses. But now, a new business can recover lost profits as long as the evidence proves it with “reasonable certainty.” But it should not be as simple as that, contends a new paper, “The New Business Rule and Compensation for Lost Profits,” by Victor P. Goldberg, Jerome Greene Professor of Transactional Studies at Columbia University School of Law. He says that, in some cases, it is correct to deny recovery. The trouble is, courts are failing to grasp certain factors, resulting in many lost profits claimants being overcompensated. Earlier this year, Dr. Goldberg published a paper, “Reckoning Contract Damages: Valuation of the Contract as an Asset.”