Expert Witness
The term “forensic” regarding a forensic accountant means “…pertaining to the court…” and is applied to somebody who examines evidence and provides an opinion about that evidence for the benefit of the judge (and jury in criminal trials). Thus the term expert witness applied to an accountant means that person gives expert accounting evidence in court. Sometimes expert witness services are called litigation support.
An expert witness must be credible and capable and it is for a judge to decide whether expert evidence is persuasive or not, and where both sides produce opposing experts, which expert evidence is to be favored. Lord Justice Auld said:
“…The best expert witness in most cases is likely to be one who practices, as well as giving expert evidence, in his discipline, rather than the ‘professional’ expert witness – one who does little else. Justice is best served by attracting persons of a high level of competence and experience to this work…”
Mark Jenner is a fraud professional who regularly investigates fraud for the fraud regulators and victims of fraud alike. Over the years he has developed a fraud expertise that together with his accountancy accreditation allows him to present his findings or analyse other expert reports as an independent expert accounting witness specialising in fraud matters. He has worked within litigation support as an expert witness for over 15 years.