A CPA and business valuation expert can provide valuable services to attorneys and businesses involved in litigation. The CPA brings business, accounting and tax knowledge that the attorney may be lacking. Typically, CPAs will serve either as expert consultants to the clients’ attorneys or as expert witnesses:

a. Expert Consultant. As a consultant, the CPA is engaged by the attorney to develop information that will be used by the attorney in a variety of ways, such as during settlement negotiations with the opposing side. In these engagements, the CPA is usually not expected to testify, and documents he or she creates may be protected by attorney-client privilege. This means that they may not have to be made available to the opposing side.

b. Expert Witness. When a CPA is engaged as an expert witness, the CPA will often have to provide deposition and courtroom testimony, and all of the documents created by the CPA, including reports relating to the case, are subject to “discovery” by the other side.

Judith H. O’Dell has over twenty years of experience in various phases of litigation services ranging from an early intervention expert in accountants’ malpractice cases to expert reports and expert testimony. Many cases are settled before they go to trial and she has experience in working with attorneys in structuring settlements. Her extensive peer review experience, service on American Institute of CPAs technical committees and association with Practitioners Publishing Company’s technical manuals as a contributing editor and instructor as well as 38 years of audit and tax experience give her a unique and valuable perspective.