Litigation Support - Bodtke & Stewart, Certified Public Accountants (CPAs), Peoria Illinois

Litigation Supported Services

Often in the world, very real disputes must be decided between people who genuinely believes they understand a situation, in direct opposition of someone who genuinely believes they understand a situation. This is why we have judges and arbitrators, to give opinions on issue which otherwise would no be resolved.

Our litigation support services are directed towards assisting counsel in two ways:

•	Providing consulting services, such a valuation, tax opinions, and agreed upon procedures to information, as an advocate of the client.
•	Providing independent expert services in the context of being neutral in the determination of issues. In other words, rendering a professional opinion, regardless of the outcome to each party.

Each of the above roles must be clearly determined prior to the engagement of our professional services, because they can effect discovery of the many issues in a dispute. It further determines the ultimate credibility of testimony heard by the tier of facts.

The tools we use in litigation support are varied.

•	In pension valuations we use actuarial tables to determine life expectance, make rate of return assumptions of long term investments, and calculate present or future values of defined contribution and defined benefit pension plan, with or without spousal survivor benefits included. Often we used specialized software and frequently updated databases, which assists us in making our determination.
•	In lost profit and damage calculations, we use historical data to forecast future expectations, based on economic assumptions, most probable in occurring.
•	In information technology litigation, we determine causes of failure, mitigation issues present, and determinations of costs to replace lost data, records, or property.
•	In casualty claims we determine coverage of items under specific insurance contracts applying the appropriate standard of value to the instant claim. Those standards of value may be replacement cost, depreciated replacement cost, original cost, or original cost less depreciation.
•	In child support cases, we use statutory definitions of income and apply them to guideline child support tables to determine proper calculation in family law.

Most often in litigation support, our client is the attorney who hires us and we owe our duty to that attorney. In other instances, we may be hired directly by the client of the attorney, and in this instance our duty is to that client. Finally, in areas of rendering independent professional opinions, we may be hired to express an opinion by one or both attorneys or parties in the matter for a fairness opinion.

If you need information on making a determination, please contact us for services we can provide you, as early in the matter as possible. We can assist you in making a determination, prior to incurring substantial fees in the litigation.