Click Limiting Malpractice through Scope of Engagement
by guest bloggers Jennifer H. Feldscher and Seth L. Laver. A recent NY Appellate Division decision serves as another reminder of the importance of carefully defining the scope of engagement in an engagement letter. This is because, under New York law, an attorney may not be held liable for failing to act outside the scope […]
Using Indemnification Clauses to protect your firm
by Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ARM, ACIArb All CPAs know that a signed engagement letter is a crucial tool in the defense of a professional negligence lawsuit. The engagement letter memorializes the terms of the engagement, details what services you are performing and more importantly, the services you are NOT offering (i.e. you will not detect […]
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Rickard Jorgensen - Posted in Accountants' risk management, being sued, client communications, Client relations, due diligence, engagement letters, engagement letters, file documentation, indemnification clause, insurance, Mediation, risk management, settlement negotiation, Uncategorized
Jan, 28, 2019
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Using the engagement letter to reduce cyber liability exposure
By Nick Matarazzo In this digital age, accountants are being forced to deal with all sorts of cyber threats. A well-worded engagement letter can help guard you against a cyber-related liability claim from your client and minimize your overall firm liability. Even if you are careful about your clients’ data, you may still be held […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Cyber Liability, Cyber resources, engagement letters, engagement letters, professional liability claims, risk management, security, Uncategorized
- Oct, 03, 2018
- No Comments.
How To Minimize The Damage Of Lawsuits
by Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ACIArb., ARM Things Beyond Your Control That Precipitate Lawsuits With the advent of the computer era and information age, the cultural and business climate of the nation, and world, has shifted. Businesses have become more complicated, as attitudes sanction greater and greater risk-taking. No longer are there sure-fire lifetime jobs […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, Accountants' risk management, being sued, Claims, Client relations, Client screening, due diligence, engagement letters, engagement letters, file documentation, File retention, lawsuit, risk management, Uncategorized
- Aug, 08, 2017
- 2 Comments.
An overview of the client screening process
By Rickard Jorgensen, FCII, ACIArb, ARM Extracted from Evaluating Clients – Engagement risk screening for CPA firms. There are solid reasons for screening new clients. Many involve not getting paid, exposure to lawsuits or even the stress related to difficult individuals. Effective client screening can avoid these problems. Implementing a formal screening process is the […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' risk management, Client relations, Client screening, due diligence, engagement letters, engagement letters, lawsuit, professional liability claims, risk management, Uncategorized
- Aug, 08, 2017
- No Comments.
The Risk of Being Consistent
(How Claims Arise From Following Past Work and not Our Independent Judgment) By Ralph G. Picardi, Esq. “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds….” When Ralph Waldo Emerson penned those words in his essay, Self-Reliance, almost 175 years ago I think it is fair to say he didn’t have accounting risk management in […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, Accountants' risk management, Client relations, Client screening, engagement letters, file documentation, File retention, professional liability claims, Ralph G. Picardi, risk management, Uncategorized
- May, 09, 2017
- No Comments.
ADR Provision in Engagement Letters – a new approach
You may recall the blog posting about the Mediation Clause recommended by Ralph Picardi (go here for a link to the post). Recently certain firms have enjoyed success by augmenting this provision with a section step which essentially provides rules for the resolution of a claim or fee dispute by Arbitration. While Arbitration as a process has limitations, […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' risk management, Client relations, engagement letters, Mediation, professional liability claims, Ralph G. Picardi, Uncategorized
- Apr, 10, 2017
- No Comments.
Risk Management for Tax Engagements
According to the AICPA, in 1990 tax engagement were responsible for 42 per cent of all malpractice claims filed against CPA. Fast-forward to today and that apportionment of losses hasn’t change much. In fact, according to the same source, tax claims against CPAs can be quantified as follows: 55% of total number of claims against […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, Accountants' risk management, engagement letters, Tax Services, Uncategorized
- Feb, 20, 2017
- No Comments.
Engagement letters – what should they contain
Every trial attorney will tell you that the first and most important tool in the defense of a malpractice claim against a CPA is a strong and carefully crafted engagement letter. This was brought home last week with one of our long-standing CPAGold™ clients. For years the CPA had provided corporate tax filing services to […]
- Posted by Rickard Jorgensen
- Posted in Accountants' professional liability insurance, Accountants' risk management, Client relations, Coverage, engagement letters, engagement letters, professional liability claims
- Nov, 16, 2016
- No Comments.
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