Litigation Support

Overview

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MorrisAnderson serves as a resource to clients who are either plaintiffs or defendants in lawsuits. As a result of 40+ years of experience with distressed companies, much of our litigation support work incurs in the context or aftermath of a Chapter 11 case.

Typically, we’re engaged to handle:

• Expert Witness– this involves reviewing the facts of the case including both parties’ pleadings and depositions in the case, crafting an expert witness report that fairly and reasonably supports our client’s position, and potentially testifying in deposition or trial
• Forensic Investigations and Accounting– this involves reviewing financial records and written materials to break down what is often a complex financial transaction into simple terms and concepts that people less knowledgeable on the subject can understand

A common theme of all areas of litigation support involves taking complicated and often confusing financial data and using it to determine who benefited from the transaction and by how much. The analysis needs to be both accurate and thorough, as the client is in an adversarial hearing scenario where the other sides will potentially have two opportunities (deposition and trial) to poke holes in the analysis and attempt to discredit you as an expert.

As such, two key skills for a MorrisAnderson consultant who writes an expert report are listening skills and maintaining composure under pressure. We work closely with litigation counsel on these cases to ensure we are providing a work product that improves our client’s odds of winning the case. We typically work in small teams of two consultants on these projects with one person designated as the project manager who will sign all reports and testify as necessary.

Expert Witness

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MorrisAnderson is often asked by client counsel to assist in prosecuting or defending litigation regarding an economic issue. Most of our work in this area relates to bankruptcy cases, but we also get involved in other litigation over breach of contract, diversion of cash within a business, family economic disputes and business valuations.

Expert Witness work involves getting a strong understanding of the fundamental dispute, each sides’ primary arguments and ideally, the position counsel wants to investigate and take in the case. Although we serve as advocates for our clients, we will never act as “hired guns” that will simply testify as directed. We only take positions we believe in and can back up with sound logic and our deep experience.

We have written reports, testified, and been subjected to Daubert exam on a wide variety of topics including:

1. Preference Claims
2. Fraudulent Conveyance Claims
3. Plan of Reorganization Feasibility
4. Solvency Analysis
5. Breach of Contract Damages
6. Lender Liability Claims

Forensic Investigations and Accounting

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Occasionally clients have issues that require a detailed investigation into financial transactions due to some evidence or concern of improper use of assets or a transaction that may not have been negotiated at arm’s length and properly valued. Alternatively, the accounting statements may not be a fair representation of company financial performance. MorrisAnderson has forensic accounting experience and expertise to review areas of this nature.

Some examples of past investigations include:

• Financial Statements Accounting – Have the company auditors followed standard practice when reviewing and auditing financial statements? Is the General Ledger (GL) system in balance and does it tie to the Financial Statements? Do primary asset categories have recent, large increases or decreases, and overall, do they appear reasonable in size?
• AR Accuracy and Collectability – Does the AR Subledger tie to the GL? Can you trace cash monthly in an AR roll forward? Are large AR payments traceable to bank statements?
• Inventory Accuracy – What does physical inventory look like? How many locations have inventory? Is the valuation method reasonable?
• Cash Use – Does the company receive large payments or many small ones? Are the bank accounts numerous or are there just a few?
• Internal Controls – How are invoices approved for payment? Who prepares and who authorizes payments? Who applies cash to the AR sub-ledger?