Users of expert accountants’ reports need to subject them to critical scrutiny. George Sim explains how & why
- Report contents – does the report do what it sets out to do?
- Limitations on the quality of information relied upon.
Expert accountants’ reports vary considerably. Some are brief and consist largely of sets of calculations, whereas reports on large commercial cases may be lengthy and complex, with several appendices showing the detail of the expert’s calculations and providing background information.
The Civil Procedure Rules, the Criminal Procedure Rules and the Family Procedure Rules and relevant practice directions set out basic requirements for expert reports such as the requirement to provide details of experts’ qualifications. Nevertheless, solicitors and barristers will often need to assess the value of expert accountants’ reports by reference to more detailed criteria. This article identifies issues which may be important to an evaluation of an expert accountant’s report.
General points
Does the report cover the expert’s instructions?
Expert accountants generally summarise their instructions in the body of their reports or include a copy of the relevant letter from the instructing
