Question

Discuss the role of an expert witness/fraud examiner in each proceeding of litigating and embezzlement case in civil court and criminal court

Answer 1

The role of expert witness or fraud examiner is to assist the trier in resolving issues of the litigation by providing its specialized knowledge. When the ligitation is about of application and understanding of accounting issues, the fraud examiner or the forensic accountant helps to resolve the issues between the taxpayers and revenue authorities. These experts may be classified into three categories 1) Testifying experts, 2) consulting experts and 3) fact witness. When the examiner or accountants are called to testify the facts as witnesses, in this case they provide only factual first hand information without providing its opinion in the case. As a consulting expert they consult on the attorney's work by formulating strategy, reviewing the documents and providing additional support in helping to resolve the case. The third type the testifying experts generally appear before a judge or jury of the fact to provide an opinion by way of either deposition or by testimony before the court. The taxpayers and the government present the forensic accountants in the litigations because they expect that their their opinions of the subject matter will help make the cases more convincing to the judge and result in a favourable outcome. These experts undertake the research of the case to help in resolving the litigations. The detailed anaysis done by the fraud examiner is benificial for the both the tax payers and the revenue authorities.