Forensic Accounting and Litigation Services
We have a dedicated team of forensic accountants ready to help
The term forensic accounting is used to describe the special combination of skills that are applied in preparing and reviewing financial evidence. Forensic accounting is the application of the skills and expertise of an accountant to investigations, disputes and other reviews, the result of which could end up in a court of law. At Azets, we have a dedicated team of forensic accountants ready to provide our services to you.
Forensic Expertise in Legal Disputes
Azets provides precise financial evidence for commercial and litigation cases.
Thorough Fraud Investigations
We uncover and investigate suspected fraud with expert forensic analysis.
Objective Dispute Resolution
Azets offers unbiased financial insights to resolve complex disputes.
Effective Asset Tracing and Intelligence
We trace hidden assets and uncover corporate structures to protect creditors.
Services we provide
- Expert Witness: acting as expert witness in commercial and litigation disputes
- Litigation Support: providing forensic assistance and expert testimony in commercial legal matters
- Investigative Accounting: carrying out investigations across a wide range of areas
- Fraud Investigations: resulting from suspected or alleged fraudulent actions of another party
- Dispute Advisory Services: to resolve disputes that are often deadlocked due to the emotional issues at play
- Loss of Earnings Calculations: arising from an event which has resulted in a loss of earnings
- Corporate Intelligence & Asset Tracing: to establish the owners of cooperate entities and trace assets which may have been transferred out of the reach of creditors.
Our Forensic Accounting & Litigation Services
Litigation Support & Expert Witness
Litigation Support & Expert Witness
An Expert Witness can be anyone with knowledge or experience of a particular field or discipline whose duty is to give the Court an impartial opinion on particular aspects of matters within their expertise which are in dispute.
At Azets, our Litigation Support and Expert Witness Services focus on providing forensic assistance and expert testimony in commercial disputes, whether existing or pending. We will work closely with your existing legal advisers to provide you with the support required at all stages of the litigation.
Litigation support can be a service provided in conjunction with our fraud investigation or forensic technology services but also deals with issues relating to liability in negligence cases and other cases that require the quantification of economic damages.
A typical litigation support assignment strengthens a plaintiff’s case for the recovery of economic loss or fortifies a defendant’s resistance to litigation. Our services include:
- Pre-Trial support including expert reporting and discovery;
- Trial Support including analysing testimony from the other side and acting as expert witness;
- Settlement support include quantification, plus structuring settlements in the most tax efficient manner possible.
Fraud Investigations & Investigative Accounting
Fraud Investigations & Investigative Accounting
At Azets having acted in hundreds of various formal appointments in examinerships, liquidations and receiverships, we have carried out a large number of investigations across a wide range of sectors and services.
We report regularly to the High Court as part of our formal appointments with carrying out statutory reports to the ODCE and reports to the board and shareholders of companies. The types of unlawful activities include:
- Fraudulent financial;
- Misappropriation of assets;
- Computer crime / abuse of IT phishing;
- Revenue gained by fraudulent or illegal acts;
- Activity that leads to shareholder or partner disputes;
- Expenses avoided by fraudulent or illegal acts;
- Insurance fraud;
- Tax frauds.
Dispute Advisory Services
Dispute Advisory Services
Dispute Advisory Services can include both formal and informal assignments to assist in commercial dispute resolution, often involving disputes of significant scale.
These can include resolving deadlock at board level, patent infringement disputes, loss of profits claims, consequential loss and warranty claims. Resolution of disputes in the most tax efficient manner possible is a core skillset of Azets.
In entrepreneurial, owner managed or family-owned businesses, shareholder or partner disputes often arise. The emotional issues can cloud what should otherwise be a straightforward commercial resolution, particularly in family disputes.
We understand the importance of both the emotional and commercial issues in reaching a resolution to a dispute.
Loss of Earnings Calculations
Arising out of a dispute, there may be a requirement to calculate the loss to form part of the legal submissions of any litigation, whether the litigation is personal relating to a loss of income or commercial and relating to a loss of profits.
We have a wide range of expertise across a number of services and industries allowing us to draw on this expertise when calculating the loss suffered by you or your client. In more recent times, business interruption claims have formed a key part of loss of earnings calculations.
Our approach to calculating the loss of earnings is:
- Information gathering – gather relevant financial information relating to prior to and after the event that caused the loss;
- Calculation – calculate the loss of earnings resulting from the event that would put you back on the same financial footing but for the event;
- Projections – project forward future earnings which would have been earned but for the event that caused the loss;
- Mitigation – take into account any mitigation of losses which have occurred;
- Report – prepare a loss of earnings report that will form part of your submission.
Corporate Intelligence & Asset Tracing
Corporate Intelligence & Asset Tracing
- Corporate Intelligence is the process of obtaining information from a range of trusted sources to assist clients to better understand the nature of actual or prospective business partners, suppliers, customers or employees.
- Asset Tracing is a procedure to identify property in the ownership of the target or that has been taken from the claimant involuntarily.
- It is not in itself a way to recover the property, but rather to identify it so that the client (or indeed the Court) can decide what steps to take or remedies to apply.
- We offer a thorough and comprehensive report about an individual and their asset holdings through a variety of resources, including online searches, company search analysis, directorships, social media, licensing, land registries, aviation registries and news items. Finally, we utilise alternative sources up to and including private investigator reports and the use of extra-jurisdictional partners where required.
Recent Engagements
- Expert Witness – acted as expert witness for three directors resisting an action by a liquidator to hold all three directors personally liable for the debts of the company and also seeking to have the directors disqualified for a period of 5 years.
- Loss Assessment Report – preparation of a loss assessment report on behalf of a city centre based company in respect of their business interruption claim as a result of the landlord seeking vacant possession of their rented premises;
- Forensic Accounting Report – prepared a forensic accounting report for a company which suffered losses based on misappropriation of funds by a former employee, which went undetected by the company and its auditor.
- Expert Witness – acted for a defendant in a loss of earnings, loss of profit and loss of opportunity claim by a plaintiff arising from works by a defendant on a damaged adjoining property.
- Loss of Earnings Calculation – acted for the plaintiff against their employer in their action over loss of earnings arising from negligence on the employer’s behalf.
- Fraud Investigation – we have assisted the Garda Fraud Squad in a number of investigations relating to Court appointments.
- Litigation – Liquidator of €80m property investment group, quantifying losses suffered by investors, tracing payments prior to the liquidation resulting in the disqualification of a director and assisted CAI in disciplinary proceedings.
- Expert Witness – acted as expert witness on behalf of a number of a shareholders in a wide variety of cases over a dispute on the value of their shareholding in a company.
Azets is trusted by over 100,000 clients as the advisor of choice for entrepreneurial businesses. Our 9,000 smart, talented people love solving business problems to bring you seamless support, no matter your size or needs. Take bigger steps forward with Azets.