Another Voice: Financial Experts on Reducing Client Costs in Civil Litigation

IAALS and AICPA
September 21, 2012

Published in conjunction with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), this report evaluates the cost and delays of litigation from a new perspective: that of financial experts.

The report offers judges, attorneys, financial experts, clients, and all those with a stake in the civil justice system five recommendations to maximize both the effectiveness of financial experts and efficiency of their use in the civil pretrial process.

  1. Judges should implement early and consistent active case management.
  2. Clients and attorneys should involve experts early in the process.
  3. Attorneys should target, focus, and streamline expert depositions and discovery.
  4. Attorneys’ Daubert-like challenges should be appropriately targeted and acted upon promptly by the court.
  5. Attorneys and the court should develop a process for the collaboration and cooperation of opposing experts where appropriate.