Week 4: Relevance of the Court Heirarchy in the Forensic Accountant Role

A majority forensic accountant cases do not materialise to any formal litigation, so unsurprisingly, many cant see the reason to at least basically understand the Australian legal system. 

However, when the time does come and the forensic accountant is required by the court to be an expert witness and provide a report of findings, the knowledge of the court system would prove vital. Without knowing at least, the basic differences of these matters, it is easy to make errors which could lead to the whole report being “thrown out” by the court. When you are on the stand providing your findings with the barristers “firing” questions at you, ignorance of the law is no excuse for mistakes you make. 

For instance, if you were caught spray painting the side of a building without consent from the owners and used the excuse that you didn’t know you were able to express your artistic style wherever you pleased…you would be laughed out of the courtroom. The same goes for forensic accountants. Where if in their report they provide a series of opinions and unsupported assumptions, alike the Carter Report, it would be considered inadmissible.

To an everyday person not knowing the court hierarchy or differences between criminal and civil law will realistically not matter. But for a forensic accountant who has to take on the expert witness role which could be the deciding factor in a case, a basic understanding would be the bare minimum. No matter the case given they need to be able to clearly determine the matter at hand whether it be providing factual presentation of economic issues (civil) or investigating criminal matters (criminal).