Financial services disputes

We are able to provide expert witness services as part of litigation, arbitration or dispute resolution processes in all types of financial services related disputes. Our team regularly works with law firms and directly with clients to provide independent, objective services in assessing the quantum of specific claims or considering liability issues in cases involving alleged accounting or audit negligence. In addition, our forensic technology specialists can assist clients with technically complex matters, for example conducting piracy scans or understanding how computer code has been used.

Our team includes a number of individuals who are experienced in giving expert evidence in Court or before a Tribunal. The team also includes dedicated International Arbitration specialists who act as experts and arbitrators with and within the major arbitral institutions (including the ICC, the LCIA and ICSID as well as ad hoc arbitrations and other international dispute resolution forums). We are also able to call upon particular Subject Matter Experts from within Deloitte’s wider financial services community.

We provide dispute advisory services to our clients and assist them in protecting the value and reputation of their business by addressing serious issues before they turn into crises.

Working alongside our client’s legal counsel as expert advisors, our disputes professionals can provide technical advice, valuable insight into data and evidence sufficiency for quantum claims, alternative scenarios and assessment of realistic quantum, as well as participate in mediation and negotiated settlements avoiding costly legal proceedings.

Our dispute professionals have extensive experience of dispute situations resulting from, for example, completion accounts or earn-out, and clauses in sale and purchase agreements. We act as either an advisor to a party to the transaction, assisting them as required at all stages of the process, or we act as the Independent Determining Accountant.

Given the predominance of electronically stored information in organisations, and the move to off-shoring and out-sourcing seen in many financial services institutions, the ability to collect effectively, manage and search that information is typically a critical element of most financial services dispute related matters. Our experience shows that the companies operating in this sector in particular tend to have extremely complex systems architecture and companies can experience challenges when trying to identify which systems are relevant to the issues in dispute and also in accessing information from such systems, especially if the systems are legacy. Our global team of forensic technology professionals provide a full range of consultancy and technology services to assist law firms and clients in the securing, collection, filtering, review, production and presentation of electronically stored information.