How has forensic accounting changed since the pandemic?

The first COVID-19 national lockdown is now four years ago. Around that unprecedented time, professional advisers were concerned about whether their business would survive the lockdowns, not least as it was no longer possible to meet face to face with clients or referrers. Since then, we’ve seen the litigation market change, but more so in the last year. Our statistics show that 2023 saw a huge increase in expert defence work.

In summary, the last four years of instructions have looked like this:

One of the biggest news stories this year has been the Post Office Horizon scandal and this has impacted our results due to our involvement with assisting the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses with the three compensation schemes available. Our results are affected by this one-off piece of work which started in 2021, then ramped up last year and now the government wants the work completed as soon as possible.

Otherwise, we were instructed in a similar number of matters in 2020 to 2022. The type of appointment has varied year on year, as the courts re-opened post COVID and the pressures due to COVID made the environment more litigious.

It is our experience that forensic accountants can still be involved at the early stages of litigation, advising claimants on quantum and accountancy issues. This can be beneficial in the long run albeit it can be difficult to advise a litigant on the merit of its case when initially its judgement can be clouded by a sense of unfairness.

Single Joint Expert (SJE) appointments are still the mainstay of our work. Whilst much of this is in relation to family proceedings, we are receiving SJE instructions in respect of commercial litigation.

In respect of our work type, this can be displayed graphically as follows:

Matrimonial cases still account for most of our instructions, making up approximately half of all cases between 2020 and 2022, but only one third of fees. Conversely, commercial litigation sits between 20% and 25% of all cases and accounted for one third of fees in 2022.

There were two appointments as a mediator in 2022 and 2023 compared with none in the previous two years. This is in addition to our role as experts in giving evidence during mediation, arbitration, employment and other tribunals.

Ignoring the involvement in Post Office cases, the largest source of work comes from the Midlands, followed by London. This shows that physical location has become less important in recent years, likely due to the increase in remote working and online meetings.

TYPES OF CASES

The work our members carried out can be broadly categorised as:

• Criminal
• Expert determination / completion accounts
• Fraud
• Insolvency
• Loss of profits / earnings
• Matrimonial
• Personal injury
• Professional negligence
• Shareholder disputes

For more information, contact us.

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