Audit and Accountancy Pitfalls: A Casebook for Practising Accountants, Lawyers and Insurers

Auditors and accountants face many challenges as the fallout from the financial crisis continues. Companies and individuals who have incurred losses are likely to turn the spotlight on their financial advisors who failed to keep them out of trouble. The enormous rise in fraud due to the recession will undoubtedly give rise to the age-old cry ‘Where were the auditors?'

Audit and Accountancy Pitfalls is a one-of-a-kind casebook of professional negligence claims against auditors and accountants. Written as a practical reference for accountancy practitioners and their advisors, the authors draw on their personal experiences as expert witnesses, and from insurers' case files to provide a set of real life case studies illustrating the professional challenges facing all accountants and auditors, adding practical guidance on how to manage these situations effectively.

Coverage includes:

• Claims against auditors for failing to detect fraud
• Other claims against auditors.
• Claims against accountants
• Tax related claims
• Disciplinary actions against accountants

The cases described in this book will provide many salutary warnings to practitioners in virtually every field of accountancy. Although all names have been changed to protect the guilty, the events and outcomes described are real. In each instance the authors set out what went wrong and the lessons to be learned from the mistakes made, making this a thought-provoking read.

Written by an author team with over 40 years' collective experience in dealing with litigation in accounting and auditing, Audit and Accountancy Pitfalls will be an indispensable reference for auditors, accountants and anyone involved in claims involving allegations of negligence against professional accountants.