Litigation Support Services 
 
We have significant experience in supporting legal practitioners providing them with financial and accounting advice in order to assist them in resolving disputes and, if need be, to support them in Court by providing expert evidence.    In some instances, our work in this area is on direct instruction from the Court or an independent body (e.g. Auckland District Law Society, various Tribunals).

Broadly speaking, there are three main areas of litigation that we support: commercial litigation, relationship property and criminal.  
 
Commercial Litigation 
 
The types of commercial litigation cases we are engaged on arise for a number of reasons including alleged breaches of contract or duty, shareholder or commercial partner disputes or alleged misappropriation of funds. 

Our support in this area can involve a combination of assessment of loss and financial investigation / forensic accounting work.  Assessment of loss assignments often involve performing or reviewing valuations of entities. 

Click here to see a sample of some of our commercial litigation work.

Relationship Property
 
Assisting legal practitioners in relationship property matters is a specialised area in its own right and requires a sound knowledge of the relevant law in addition to financial and accounting expertise. 

Our work in this area primarily involves assisting lawyers in developing or critiquing valuations and assisting with other financial aspects of relationship property settlements. 

Our valuation work primarily involves valuation of relevant businesses and entities (such as trusts) but can also involve the valuation of instruments such as options.  We are also often called upon to carry out detailed investigations / enquiries into the financial affairs of the couple.  These investigations / enquiries often relate to the status of claimed separate property.

In addition, we are often instructed to prepare or critique economic disparity calculations pursuant to section 15 of the Property (Relationships) Act.  This is a relatively new area of relationship property law which requires good knowledge of the recent cases that have come before the Court.

It should be noted that we do not act exclusively on behalf of either male or female spouses / de facto partners. Our advice is therefore based on the benefit of experience and knowledge of working for both “sides” of the relationship.

A small, anonymous sample of some of the valuation work we have performed in relation to relationship property matters can be found here.

Criminal
 
In the last year we have began to provide support to legal counsel whose clients have been accused of crimes that have a financial aspect, such as fraud and money laundering.  Our support has invariably included providing expert evidence to the Court.

The specific nature of our assistance generally involves financial investigation / forensic accounting work and providing general financial / commercial opinions on various issues relevant to the particular matter.

If you would like to discuss any of these services with us, please contact Shane Hussey on 09 300 5481 or email him.