With legal disputes now a sad fact of business life, it is more important than ever to have access to expert financial advice, particularly when the stakes are high.
As forensic accountants, it’s our job to provide advice and support on complex financial issues in the event of a legal dispute. Our specialist training enables us to quickly get to the heart of the matter, providing a reliable, authoritative contribution to your case.
Our support spans a wide range of issues and situations, such as:
Expert witnesses experienced in giving evidence to the courts
Litigation support, such as quantifying damages or calculating economic loss – often in personal injury cases and other civil litigation
Professional negligence
Calculating economic loss in breach of contract cases
Fraud and other criminal cases that involve tracing funds and asset movements and assisting defence teams
Matrimonial matters, for example the valuation of business interests, liquidity and funding, tax consequences of financial settlements and pension sharing.
We provide lawyers and their clients with incisive, timely advice, geared to the commercial reality of the situation. When the stakes are high you cannot afford to get it wrong, our input can make all the difference:
Business – business interruption – commercial disputes – criminal and civil fraud – employee fraud – directors disqualification – intellectual property disputes – loss of profit claims.
Personal – fatal accidents – personal injury – clinical negligence – loss of office compensation – matrimonial matters – pension related claims – structured settlements – loss of pension rights calculations.
John Green, head of Pierce Forensic Ltd is one of the first in the Country to receive The Forensic Accountant and Expert Witness Accreditation from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Civil * Acting on behalf of the wife�s solicitors.
* Investigation of allegations that the husband�s limited company had not recorded all its sales income. Comparison of diary records of takings with company cash books and nominal ledger. Obtaining proof of the allegations made. Interview of the former company finance director.
* Valuation of the company and quantification of its additional borrowing capacity.
* Liaising with trustees of the company�s pension scheme to establish a transfer of pension assets into a separate new personal pension for the wife. Case Report
Personal Injury * The claimant was very seriously injured and permanently disabled following an attack outside a night-club. He could no longer communicate.
* He was a self-employed builder but very few records relating to his business could be found.
* We assessed his loss of profits by reference to the profits of eight comparable small building businesses from our own client base and information provided by the Inland Revenue. Case Report
Commercial Litigation * The Claimant had been supplied with dishcloths from overseas on the basis they were 100% cotton.
* Following a trading standards inspection one of his supermarket customers was prosecuted as the dishcloths contained only 11% of cotton.
* The supermarket customer withdrew the dishcloths and other products supplied by the Claimant from its entire chain of shops and then changed supplier.
* The Claimant was obliged to recall the dishcloths from another supermarket customer who also then changed supplier.
* We calculated the loss of profits arising from the supply of defective dishcloths. Case Report
Business Law # The claimant was in partnership trading as a building firm. He provided all the labour and his partner all the capital and funding.
# Following disagreement and dissolution of the partnership, preparation of accounts and partner�s capital accounts from incomplete records.
# Tracing and identifying partnership monies within private bank accounts. Case Report
Crime * The Defendant was accused of misappropriation of cash from a Working Mens Club. He served on the Club Committee during the period when the alleged defalcation took place.
* It was clear that the control over cash expenditure incurred on behalf of the Club had broken down. The defendant had failed to keep adequate records of cash income and expenditure.
* The Club had undergone a major refurbishment during the period in question. Much of the work had been undertaken by contractors on the understanding that they would be paid in cash and no invoice would be required.
* Calculations had been prepared by the prosecution apparently demonstrating a significant cash shortfall.
* We examined the calculations and undertook a comparison with the accounting records of the club. Numerous errors and omissions were discovered in the calculations. The impact of these errors and omissions was to reduce the calculated cash shortfall.
* A comparison was made between the cost of refurbishment work which had been authorised by the committee and the cost which had been recorded in the accounting records. The difference between these two figures was considered to be unrecorded cash expenditure in respect of the refurbishment work. This unrecorded expenditure fully explained the residual cash shortfall. Case Report
Banking Law # Receiving instructions from an individual�s trustee in bankruptcy that we quantify the amounts fraudulently withdrawn from his business bank account by his bank manager, together with a quantification of amounts subsequently repaid by the bank manager.
# Detailed examination of the business books and records and tracing amounts through several separate business bank accounts and bank statements. Establishing genuine withdrawals by matching to supporting documentation and isolating fraudulent withdrawals.
# Identifying cash receipts from the business which were forwarded to the bank but never banked. Identifying repayments to the bank account. Case Report
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