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The Role of Forensic Accounting in Matrimonial Litigation

25 Oct 2018

Adrian Pym, Director of Prime Forensic Accounting was invited to speak about The Role of Forensic Accounting in Matrimonial Litigation at the Resolution Financial Remedy Update on October 27th.

Adrian told the family solicitors and barristers in the audience that when he first started doing this work, the term forensic accountant was not commonly used, and he found himself being asked “is it like CSI on the TV – do you deal with dead bodies?”. 25 years later and there still remains confusion over the work a forensic accountant does. Therefore his speech focused on the role of the forensic accountant; how one would become involved in matrimonial litigation and common misconceptions about the role.

The recent TV series “The Split” had a brief encounter with a forensic accountant who visited the divorcing couples house to count the bottles of claret, as part of their divorce proceedings!

The reality of the role is far more demanding, and far less glamorous, than depicted.

Parties still believe that a forensic accountant has special powers to find the “missing cash” but what happens in reality is that extensive investigation into the evidence disclosed by the parties, available at Companies House, or other publically available information, combined with the forensic accountants experience, can identify where conflicts in the evidence exist. Such conflicts of evidence might suggest unrecorded or missing income.

Adrian Pym, Director - “The role of the forensic accountant is often thought to be an expensive and time consuming one, but in reality we can help parties resolve isolated issues that help them settle financial matters and move on, or we can provide more extensive assistance commensurate with the value of assets held by the parties.”

As one Judge in a divorce case said why would parties agree to a settlement without knowing the value of the assets they hold? Valuing a business is not a straightforward mathematical exercise so specialist advice is often required.

Adrian has extensive experience of public speaking as well as hosting workshops in-house for law firms. In his experience such workshops are an effective way to communicate accounting issues that solicitors might face on their cases, and key issues to look out for. If you would like to enquire about Adrian presenting to your team please feel free to contact our marketing team on 0121 711 2468 or expert@primeforensic.co.uk to arrange this.