Forensic accounting is the use of accounting skills to investigate claims, fraud or embezzlement; analyze financial information for use in a legal proceeding or in government/client review; and provide oral or written reports, outlining pertinent data, findings and expert opinion. It’s a highly specialized area of accounting, one that demands extreme integrity, a clear sense of independence, and uncompromised objectivity.

Forensic accountants serve in a number of roles, the most common are as an “expert witness” or an “expert consultant.” An expert witness is formally designated by either party of a dispute to render an opinion before the court, to assist the judge in understanding the evidence, or to determine a fact at issue. As a result, an expert witness’s litigation-related work may be required to be produced to the opposing party through a process called “discovery.”

Conversely, an expert consultant is not formally designated by either party but is retained by either party to advise about facts, issues, strategies or other matters relevant to litigation. Generally, the expert consultant’s work is protected from discovery by the attorney work-product doctrine, an extension of the attorney client privilege.

Litigation is costly, and the outcome is uncertain. If your litigation team is strong, the likelihood you will be satisfied with the outcome will be greater. As a part of your litigation team, a forensic accountant approaches each case like a giant jigsaw puzzle in which the pieces are all mixed up, some pieces or sections may be missing, and the box has been thrown away. At this point, the picture is uncertain. So working in such constraints, the forensic accountant has three primary functions:

1. Gather – To assist clients and/or counsel in gathering and organizing relevant and reliable financial documents.
2. Analyze – To analyze the financial information gathered for the purpose of rendering an opinion or providing consulting.
3. Report – To communicate the findings to the client(s), their counsel, or to the court.
   
   

Based out of our firm’s Wilmington, N.C., location, our forensic accountant and fraud investigators have worked on cases for clients all over the United States, primarily throughout the Southeast and East Coast.