Accountant's Liability to Third Parties

When an accountant provides auditing and accounting services they owe a duty to their clients of reasonable care, knowledge, skill and judgment. If an accountant breaches the duty of reasonable care, knowledge, skill, and judgment, he or she is believed to have committed a tort which may be classified as accounting malpractice or negligence. An accountant who commits negligence can be held liable for falling to exercise a certain duty of care to their clients. For example, if an auditor discovers questionable transactions while performing an audit, the accountant should investigate it and inform the client of the results.

This case established that an auditor could be sued by a primary beneficiary for damages from negligence. A primary beneficiary is a party that has a direct benefit from the audit. Non-privity parties could also sue for gross negligence. This increased the auditor’s legal exposure to third parties. The SEC of 1934 reflected these changes and many others; one significant change was that auditor’s had a much higher litigation risk due to their new responsibility to third parties.

Recently, the question of liability has become more prevalent in the practice of public accounting. The AICPA (American Institute of CPAs) has been lobbying for liability reform in cases involving negligence or fraud committed by public accountants. So, being an accounting major myself, I wanted to write about the ongoing fight involving liability reform in public accounting.

Legitimacy in accounting practices is ensured by the check and balance of having independent auditors from registered public accountant firms reviewing financial practices. The report features eleven sections and these sections pertain to accounting overview, independence of auditors to reduce interest conflicts, corporate responsibility, financial disclosures, tax returns, criminal fraud and various elements of white collar criminal activity (107th Congress

My three-years of studying at HKU afforded me with the knowledge of financial accounting and now, as a senior, I am able to consolidate complex financial statements. However, after spending an internship working with auditors, I begin to realize the many potential pitfalls inherent in the auditor/client relationship. Facing a huge amount of pressure from their clients, who, of course, are paying the bills, auditors who should be independent commonly bend the rules to curry favor with clients and

Accounting fraud is common but is not as trivial as the common cold; a typical organization loses annual revenues of nearly 5 percent to fraud. In addition, almost one-quarter of reported fraud is exceeding $1 million dollars. The accounting industry is constantly growing and changing. Consequently, difficult decisions have to be made every day. While accountants follow a simple code of conduct; nevertheless, due to the infamous scandal of Enron, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was constructed to reestablish confidence in the public marketplace.

Prior to 2002, there was very little oversight of accounting procedures. Auditors were not always independent and corporate government procedures and disclosure provisions were inadequate. Sometimes, executive compensation was tied to the stock of the company which created an incentive to manipulate the stock price by using fraudulent accounting practices to make it look like companies were making more money than they actually were. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was introduced because of the collapse of several major corporations due to these practices. This paper will

Accountants owe the duty to act in a professional and ethical manner concerning clients, as well an obligation to respect the laws that are involved with the profession. This is where a crossroads of ethics and legalities are formed and potentially the defining point of crucial decision-making. Stephen Richards and his actions under employment with Computer Associates (CA) are then examined in light of this concept.

6. This article was written before the accounting laws were changed because of problems encountered by ex-auditors working at the client, and having connections with the new auditors. This caused many problems exemplified by Enron and WorldCom. That is why it is no longer allowed to take a job with the client. I agree with the law at present, based on the fact that before the law was present, major fraud occurred that could’ve been prevented had hiring their old auditors been illegal and of course many

Businesses, investors, creditors rely on accounting ethics. The accounting profession requires honesty, consistency with industry standards, and compliance with laws and regulations. The ethics increase the responsibility and integrity of accounting professionals, and public trust. The ethical requirements influence the management behavior and decision-making. The financial scandal of Enron and Arthur Anderson demonstrates the failure of fundamental ethical framework, such as off-balance sheet transactions, misrepresentation of financial statements, inaccurate disclosure, manipulations with earnings, etc. The confronted accounting profession and concern for ethics in businesses forced regulators to revise the conceptual framework of accounting processes.

An auditor’s role in an audit is very important. An auditor must be able to collect enough evidence to supports their finding, and also be on the lookout for fraud. Company’s may or may not know the law, but it is the job to know the law, and be able to educate and report findings properly. Since the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, there have been provisions that have directly affected auditors. This paper will include the details of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, how ethics and independence have affected auditors, as well implementation of new standards based on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

As laws and regulations continue to grow and become more complex, the need for forensic accountants is sure to continue growing as well. An example of how regulations have grown (mirroring the demand for forensic accountants) can be seen by comparing the scope and length of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, at 66 pages, to the 849 page Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection act of 2009.(Tucker, 2011) It is the environment created by such complex regulations and oversight committees that has hedged the need for accounting experts who can help demonstrate both the effects of individual companies on overall markets, as well as the opposite effects of market-happenings on individual firms. This complicated data, made comprehendible by a talented and effective forensic accountant, can serve as the determining factor in a case. Ultimately, this allows for

An auditor's legal liability under common-law requires the auditor to perform professional services with due care. An auditor would cite adherence to generally accepted auditing standards as evidence of having exercised due care in conducting the audit. Lawsuits for damages under common law usually result when someone suffers a financial loss after relying on financial statements later found to be materially misstated. Plaintiffs in legal actions involving auditors such as clients or third party users of financial statements generally assert all possible causes of action, including breach of contract, tort, deceit, fraud, and anything else that may be relevant to the claim.

to tough, outside scrutiny and that the auditor-client relationship is free from commercial conflicts of

The lack of independence for external auditors will lead to the neglect of auditing risks (William R.K., 2003), which are the main reasons for the failure of certified accountants and professional accounting organizations. The consequence of the external auditors deprived of independence would be very serious. And there are many cases, which aroused by the failure of external auditors and most are related to the lack of independence. One famous example is the bankruptcy of Enron and the role played by its external auditor, Arthur Andersen (Todd, S., 2003). Arthur Andersen was once one of the biggest accounting companies in the world, and was canceled for the involvement in the Enron bankruptcy scandal.