Author Description

An in-depth practical work covering all the main areas of accountants' legal liabilities in negligence claims, including audit liabilities to clients and others, tax and insolvency work and conflicts of interest. It covers accountants' negligence in relation to claims against accountants acting for corporations as well as accountants acting for individuals. The second edition focusses on the difficult legal issues surrounding the liability of accountants in negligence claims. It covers statutory and non-statutory audits, tax advice, specified procedures reporting, due diligence reports and corporate finance reporting. It looks at the scope of losses for which the accountant may be liable with detailed reference to case law as well as money laundering and regulatory issues. Limitation and contributory fault are considered with special reference to accountants' cases. The following important developments and case law are included: - The material covering the application of the SAAMCO/scope of duty principle has been substantially revised following the clarification of the SAAMCO principle of scope of duty by the Supreme Court in BPE Solicitors & Anor v Hughes-Holland [2017] UKSC 21, [2018] AC 599 and the Court of Appeal in the accountants' case of Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK LLP [2019] EWCA Civ 40, [2019] 1 WLR 4610 - AssetCo v Grant Thornton [2019] EWHC 150 (Comm), [2019] Bus LR 2291 in which the first edition of this book was cited several times, an auditor was held liable for trading losses caused by management fraud and the Court of Appeal at [2021] PNLR 1 considered the application of the scope of duty principle to a general audit case and the question of credit for the receipt by the company of new capital - The difficult question of the application of the scope of duty principle to dividends, discussed by the High Court in BTI v PricewaterhouseCoopers [2020] PNLR 7 and the Court of Appeal in AssetCo v Grant Thornton - Lowick Rose LLP v Swyns