If You Want a Financial Expert Witness to Testify in Divorce, Do This
In divorce court, there are important “do’s and don’ts” when proferring a financial witness as an expert.
The Forensic Accounting Deskbook by Miles Mason, Sr. JD, CPA, published by the ABA Family Law Section
For a much more detailed discussion, see The Forensic Accounting Deskbook: A Practical Guide to Financial Investigation and Analysis for Family Lawyers, Second Edition, authored by Miles Mason, Sr. and published by the ABA Family Law Section. This updated edition of one the ABA’s most popular resources explains the practice of forensic accounting and business valuation and how to apply it in family law cases. It provides a practice-focused introduction to the core financial concepts in divorce, such as asset identification, classification, and valuation, income determination, expenses, and more.
See Mason’s complete list of the 10 Big Divorce Financial Mistakes.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Tracy Coenen: What is generally provided to the court to make this decision about whether or not the accounting expert can testify?
Miles Mason: And as a trial lawyer, what I try to do is anticipate a Daubert challenge. At the same time, we’re what we call establishing the credentials of the expert witness. So in a very basic sense I start with education, and a forensic accountant, that’s usually an accounting degree and an undergraduate degree in accounting. And sometimes accountants have a master’s degree these days.Training, we’re looking at experience in the workplace and formalized training experience, which most CPAs have from their first few years of being in a firm, whether it be the audit or tax department. And then certifications and experience along with that, because most certifications require some type of experience.
So we’re going to go through those basic elements and tie it back to exactly what is the testimony that the witness is going to provide. Draw a circle around those, show this is the perfect person to have for this type of testimony. And usually what I find in reality, the CPA has more experience, training, and education that’s needed to testify, much more than what is actually needed in the courtroom for that particular issue.
Thank you to Tracy Coenen, CPA, CFF for inviting me to join her in this video series. Tracy is a nationally recognized forensic accountant practicing in Milwaukee and Chicago.
