Forensic accounting refers to the use of accounting techniques and methods to confirm, record, process, extract, classify, report and check past financial data or accounting activities to solve current or expected legal problems, or to predict future financial data through the analysis of past financial data to solve related legal problems. The following is the forensic accounting paper I prepared for you, for reference only!
Forensic Accounting Thesis: On the Evidence Support of Forensic Accounting in Civil Litigation I. Overview of Forensic Accounting
Forensic accounting is a new discipline. Forensic accounting refers to an intermediary activity in which a specific subject is entrusted or authorized to comprehensively apply accounting and auditing, collect and professionally judge accounting evidence of accounting disputes and legal disputes involved in the operation of economic business, and conduct professional appraisal of accounting events, and then express expert opinions and provide litigation evidence support according to the collected evidence, professional judgment and professional appraisal results. In the tide of economic globalization, it has flourished and been widely used in the litigation field. At the end of the 20th century, on the one hand, people's courts began to accept civil litigation cases caused by false statements in the securities market, and it was very difficult to determine the responsibilities and evidence related to the providers of property report information and information users in the litigation procedure, thus forming the supporting evidence for judges to determine the litigation results in court trials. On the other hand, due to many professional judgments involving the accounting profession, it is far beyond the professional competence of judges who only have legal professional knowledge. At the same time, the number of cases of xx and economic disputes has increased greatly, which makes the task of forensic accounting appraisal very heavy.
In this case, 1985, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a national symposium on criminal technical work of procuratorial system in Dalian, and adopted the Opinions on the Construction of Criminal Technical Work of Procuratorate, which clearly pointed out that judicial accounting posts should be set up in provincial and municipal people's procuratorates and incorporated into criminal technical work of procuratorial organs. 1990 10/5, Changchun city, Jilin province established the first forensic accounting appraisal institute in China-Changchun forensic accounting appraisal institute, and its establishment marked the birth of "forensic accounting" in China in the century.
Second, the status quo of forensic accounting research in the field of litigation
(1) The connotation and field of forensic accounting litigation support business.
Litigation support is a kind of legal service to confirm, analyze and provide expert advice on accounting issues in ongoing or unresolved legal cases. In the era of increasing litigation, the litigation support business in the consulting field of accounting firms has also grown rapidly. Forensic accounting litigation support business is mainly related to litigation procedures, which is a new accounting service field gradually developed in judicial practice. It provides accounting analysis for specific economic matters or cases by accounting measurement and reflection of specific xx, economic negligence and economic disputes, thus providing an important basis for the court to make a final ruling on relevant economic cases. It is a special service for the court and litigants. In other words, forensic accounting is a kind of legal service to confirm and analyze the accounting problems in ongoing or unresolved legal cases and provide expert advice.
The field of forensic accounting litigation support business is very extensive. At the initial stage, the services and suggestions provided by forensic accounting litigation support were mainly used to quantify economic losses, and now it has developed into complex investigation and analysis, and even the establishment of litigation strategies. Common areas that need forensic accounting to provide litigation support include: civil remedies for fraud, shareholder disputes, business valuation, insurance claims, marriage disputes, personal injury claims, breach of contract, product liability, construction claims, copyright matters, court appointments, loss judgments, income tax disputes, unfair or just dismissal, etc.
(2) The research status of forensic accounting in the litigation field of our country.
The application of forensic accounting in litigation practice is closely related to the litigation mode of a country. China and other countries in the continental law system implement the mode of ex officio litigation, and accordingly set up an accounting appraiser system to deal with special issues in accounting. Under this system, forensic accountants act as accounting experts (similar to accounting expert witnesses in common law system) and are regarded as assistants of judges, who make up for the lack of knowledge of judges with their professional expertise. Therefore, the appraiser in the civil law system is appointed or hired by the judge ex officio or upon the application of the parties, and is in a neutral position (that is, independent of the parties). The expert opinions provided by him are called expert opinions or conclusions, which are generally regarded as an independent litigation evidence. The appraiser should usually appear in court to read and explain the appraisal opinions or conclusions, and be questioned by the judge, the parties or their agents, but generally he has no right to cross-examine.
Third, the application of forensic accounting in civil litigation
Forensic accounting provides different support in different lawsuits and plays different roles in different stages of the same lawsuit. The specific application of forensic accounting in China's litigation can be divided into two major aspects: the application in criminal litigation and the application in civil (administrative) litigation.
(A) the application of forensic accounting in evidence collection in civil litigation.
In our country, although the civil procedure law stipulates the evidence collection mode based on the parties, there are no special provisions on the rights of the parties and their agents ad litem to collect evidence and their procedural guarantees. We must pay attention to the following questions when collecting evidence:
1. Objectivity. No matter which method is adopted to collect evidence, objectivity must be the premise, and evidence must not be tampered with or forged.
2. The question of necessity. The so-called necessity of collecting evidence is the problem of burden of proof.
3. The problem of timeliness. Timeliness means that the collection of evidence must be time-limited, sooner rather than later. If the evidence is not collected in time, the parties may lose the case because of the time limit for proof and the limitation of action.
(2) The application of forensic accounting in the identification of evidence in civil proceedings.
Forensic accounting is an accounting consulting service, which provides an important basis for the trial of cases, and the conclusions obtained can be used as litigation evidence. The main tasks of forensic accounting in China at present;
1. Provide a scientific basis for identifying criminal facts. In some crimes, such as the crime of xx, the crime of falsely reporting registered capital, the crime of xx, etc., it is necessary to investigate and analyze the accounting matters involved, make a scientific appraisal conclusion, and provide scientific evidence for judicial proceedings, trials to determine the defendant's criminal facts, as well as conviction and sentencing.
2. Provide scientific basis for solving economic disputes. In some economic disputes, it is necessary for forensic accountants to analyze and identify accounting matters and make scientific identification conclusions, so as to provide scientific basis for judicial organs to correctly handle economic disputes.
3. Provide strong protection for safeguarding the rights and interests of enterprises and institutions. When enterprises and institutions make major decisions, with the participation of relevant forensic accountants, they will know which behaviors are legal and which behaviors are illegal, so as to avoid risks and safeguard the interests of enterprises and institutions to the maximum extent.
(3) The application of forensic accounting in evidence support in civil litigation.
As there is no special evidence law in China when forensic accountants collect evidence, according to the current relevant regulations, forensic accountants can provide litigation support as appraisers and expert assistants.
1. appraiser. There are three ways to produce expert witnesses: one is entrusted by one party; Second, it is determined by both parties through consultation; Third, if negotiation fails, it will be designated by the people's court. The appraisal conclusion issued by the appraiser according to law is one of the evidences in civil litigation in China, which has legal evidential effect.
2. Expert assistants. The expert assistant system is a major breakthrough in China's civil litigation evidence system. There are two main rights of expert witnesses: one is to explain the specialized problems of the case and accept the inquiries of the judges; The second is to ask the appraiser. The appraisal conclusion made by the appraiser is conclusive, and the people's court shall accept it unless it is sufficient to refute it. Different from the appraiser, the expert assistant's function is only to explain and explain, to help the client find out the professional problems, to find out the problems existing in the appraisal conclusion, and to cross-examine with the opposing experts or parties. The ultimate goal is to make the judge clarify the professional knowledge in the trial process and form a judgment that is beneficial to the client.
Fourth, the shortcomings and improvement of forensic accounting in the evidence support of civil litigation
(A) the inadequacy of forensic accounting in supporting evidence in civil litigation.
1. In China, the principle of not suing and ignoring civil cases is mainly adopted. Only the parties bring a lawsuit to the court, and the court accepts those cases that meet the requirements, while the courts do not accept those cases that do not meet the requirements and do not take the initiative to accept them. However, the vast majority of accounting firms are rarely involved in the field of forensic accounting services, and their business still stays in the traditional business fields such as auditing and capital verification and a small amount of tax planning. Only a few accounting firms and law firms have initially carried out forensic accounting appraisal under the authorization of relevant institutions. Although some accounting firms are engaged in related business, due to the reasons of credibility, not only the business volume is small, but also the authority is questioned, and the business scope is too narrow. Certified public accountants generally lack legal knowledge and experience, which affects the pertinence of the evidence obtained and the accuracy of the judgment results.
2. Forensic accounting standards, qualification certification system, appraisal system, litigation support system, business operation norms and standards are basically blank. Traditional accounting systems and accounting standards have not been involved in forensic accounting, and there are neither relevant appraisal standards nor specific codes of conduct as guidance on how to identify false information, determine intentional and negligent behaviors, help the parties to calculate the scope of compensation and losses, and identify the parties' compliance with laws and regulations, so it is difficult to hold relevant personnel accountable.
3. China's civil litigation cost system lacks systematic theoretical research and basic principles to follow. Some existing regulations and practices are basically based on spontaneous traditional habits, which have far deviated from the needs of social development and brought adverse effects to judicial practice, mainly in the following aspects: citizens' right to appeal cannot be effectively guaranteed, and legitimate rights cannot be effectively protected; Some litigants use the defects of litigation cost system to maliciously harm the interests of the other party, waste judicial resources and increase the total litigation cost of the whole society; The number of cases applying for execution has increased, and the social cost of executing procedures has risen sharply; The normal social order has not been effectively protected, and the image of the judiciary has been damaged.
(B) the improvement of forensic accounting in civil litigation support.
First of all, we should improve the awareness of forensic accounting litigation support, promote the theoretical research of forensic accounting litigation support, enhance the ability of forensic accounting experts to support litigation, broaden the business areas of forensic accounting litigation support, unify the technical appraisal standards of forensic accounting, clarify the legal responsibilities of forensic accounting experts who carry out litigation support business, and build a forensic accounting expert witness system, etc., and discuss in detail the legitimacy basis of forensic accounting litigation support in theory. Connecting closely with practice, this paper classifies the litigation support of forensic accounting in detail by using multidisciplinary methods, and puts forward some opinions on the specific contents, existing problems and improvement suggestions of the main services provided by forensic accounting in criminal litigation, civil litigation and administrative litigation, so as to promote the better development of forensic accounting.
Secondly, in forensic accounting work, forensic accounting staff are required to express every problem found in the review and every question consulted by the client in concise language and appropriate expression, record the specific project, nature, scope, application method, work conclusion and forensic accounting personnel's analysis of the conclusion in detail, clearly state the client and the composition of forensic accounting personnel. In the conclusion part of the forensic accounting report,
Finally, in view of the shortcomings of forensic accounting in civil litigation support, seven suggestions are put forward to construct China's civil litigation cost system under market conditions: First, the rule that legal fees are paid in advance according to the proportion of the subject matter of litigation when filing a case is abolished, and the legal fees are paid by the losing party after the judgment takes effect to ensure the normal exercise of citizens' litigation rights; Second, properly regulate private costs, and control the total litigation costs of the whole society by regulating private costs, so that the litigation costs of the whole society can adapt to the level of social and economic development and avoid the waste of social resources; Third, establish a systematic system of attorney fee transfer, strengthen the protection of legitimate rights, increase the social responsibility of misconduct and promote social harmony; Fourth, encourage multi-channel and multi-way settlement of social conflicts and disputes, establish social awareness of resolving conflicts and disputes through consultation, and reduce the consumption of social resources in the judicial field; The fifth is to establish a system that all the execution costs are borne by the executed person, so as to urge the executed person to actively fulfill his obligations and reduce the judicial resources consumed in the execution procedure; The sixth is to establish litigation insurance system, so that people can integrate the private cost risk in civil litigation cases into the operation of commercial insurance by purchasing insurance, thus reducing and reducing the adverse impact of the cost risk brought by litigation on normal life; Seventh, improve the legal aid system, ensure that the poor and weak in society can enjoy the same legal aid rights as ordinary citizens, guarantee judicial justice and judicial human rights, and realize the constitutional principle of "everyone is equal before the law".
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