The lead Finance Expert Witness

In the process of litigation, it is essential that both the client and the attorney understand the critical role of a finance expert witness. Above all else, an expert’s purpose is to give their factual view concerning the legal suit at hand and at the same time maintain objectivity in their contributions to the litigation matters. Among other things, conducting financial analysis and data analytics or any other accounting tools could be so handy in causation assessment, value determination or damage determination. But it is remaining objective that will make any expert maintain credibility for their own sake and the sake of their clients.

A professional financial expert witness will do an independent and objective analysis which aims at evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the matter at hand to bring out a robust influential opinion to win the jury.  

What Financial expert witnesses do!

In addition to providing an independent and objective opinion in litigation cases, an experienced expert can offer evidence that can help a factual trier to understand the most critical aspects of a case. Here, the factual trier/ trier of facts can be a judge during a trial, a jury in a court, or just a tribunal appointed for dispute resolution like during arbitration.

Attorneys and financial expert witnesses could be of mutual benefit to each other in that the financial expert could offer consultancy or advisory services on several issues to the counterpart before a trial. Besides, they can act as expert witnesses to highlight the problems discussed in court. There are several topics that a qualified financial expert witness will address in terms supporting a trial case, arbitration, or mediation. Their areas of financial proficiency include but not limited to the following

• Damage calculations
• Market-adjusted damages
• Misappropriated asset allocation
• Fiduciary best practices
• Risk management
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Portfolio management
• Lost profits computation
• Financial reporting and covenant testing
• Operations and management evaluation

The critical role of a financial expert is to assist both the court and the litigant to come to terms with the complex financial matters involved in litigation. Many different financial professionals are qualified to do such tasks. However, to tell who is good for what case depends on the legal counsel’s strategy of litigation and the questions affecting the litigation.

In the process of educating and helping the parties in a case to understand the case’s financial aspects, it is paramount that the expert can show an exceptional understanding of the issues at hand as well as be able to articulate them concisely and in an easy-to-understand language. While outsourcing for an expert financial eyewitness, you should go beyond checking for credential qualifications. Your search should be compelled by the case circumstances and should be based on facts.

Consider sourcing for their portfolio to find out whether they have the right background, experience, and is qualified to offer an opinion in your case. Check out if they have any affiliation to nationally recognized financial institutions that govern economic and accounting professionals.