Page 11 - Expert Witness

tained directly by the litigant’s attorney. In the event the practitioner’s role changes from con-
sultant to expert witness, the practitioner should consider executing a new engagement letter for
the expert witness services to be performed. The practitioner may also want to consider separat-
ing his or her “consulting” file from his or her “expert witness” file.

Additionally, a practitioner can be retained in a number of different roles, including, without limitation,
a trier of fact, a special master, a court-appointed expert, a referee, an arbitrator, or a mediator. When a
practitioner’s role involves the evaluation of alleged acts of fraud, the ultimate decision regarding the
occurrence of fraud is determined by a trier of fact; therefore, a practitioner performing forensic services
is prohibited from opining regarding the ultimate conclusion of fraud. This does not apply when the
practitioner is the trier of fact. A practitioner may provide expert opinions relating to whether evidence
is consistent with certain elements of fraud or other laws based on objective evaluation. fn 2

Scope and Purpose of the Practice Aid

The intent of this practice aid is to provide the practitioner with nonauthoritative guidance when serving
as an expert witness or consultant for litigation service engagements in the United States of America,
although certain parts of this guidance also may be applicable to international assignments. This practice
aid focuses primarily on the practitioner serving in a role in connection with civil litigation disputes;
however, this practice aid also provides limited guidance for serving as an expert witness or consultant
in criminal proceeding matters. This practice aid is not intended to apply to situations in which the prac-
titioner may be required to testify as an official custodian of records or as a fact or lay witness, although
certain portions may be helpful.

A large number of state and local jurisdictions and private conflict resolution forums are available to
disputing parties, and each has unique rules and practices. However, many jurisdictions and private par-
ties have adopted some portion of the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Federal Rules of Civil Proce-
dure. These rules, along with the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure for criminal matters, also are ap-
plicable in federal court proceedings. Therefore, this practice aid generally refers to these federal rules.

In addition to this practice aid, the AICPA has issued additional nonauthoritative guidance for providing
forensic accounting services in separate practice aids. This practice aid is to be used together with this
additional guidance.

Professional Standards and Nonauthoritative Guidance

Authoritative Literature

Readers should be aware that the following authoritative literature applies to forensic accounting ser-
vices as well as any other service provided by CPAs in public practice:

 AICPA Professional Standards

 AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and Bylaws

fn 2 See SSFS No. 1, paragraph 10.

© 2020 Association of International Certified Professional Accountants 9