Being called to present evidence at court as a forensic accountant requires you to only present opinion evidence. In presenting this evidence, forensic accountants must ensure they are not partisan. More specifically, when the written report is presented to the court there must be no suggestion you are acting as advocates for the party who you are working on behalf of (Hoffman, R. et al., 2013, pg. 46).
I can relate to this from when I used to umpire junior netball games. When I was in the umpire position I had to act unbiased towards both teams when calling offences. If I did act unbiased towards a team I would of lost my position of umpire and would of not being able to umpire within that club again.
If I was engaged as an expert forensic accountant, I would ensure that when I am preparing my expert report I gathered all evidence I believed relevant whether it was damaging to my client or not. If I believed evidence was being missed I would engage the lawyer to acquire more information (Hoffman, R. et al., 2013, pg. 46). Another important strategy when constructing the report would be to ensure that the report is understandable to non- accountants and that its conclusions are unbiased in doing so (Hoffman, R. et al., 2013, pg. 46).
References:
Hoffman, R., Finney, W., Cox, P. & Cooper, K. (2013). An Accountant as an Expert Witness: A basic guide to forensic accounting (2nd ed.).
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