Falling hurts; so does litigation

Recognizing the links between risk management and litigation can help CPAs understand why and how risk management advice speaks to behaviors frequently present in professional liability claims against CPAs. When a CPA owes an ordinary duty of care, the inquiry in civil negligence cases will be whether their actions (errors) or inactions (omissions) were reasonable under the circumstances. [...]litigation asserted against CPAs often involves objectively comparing the CPA's conduct to what the average, reasonable CPA would do in a similar situation. [...]jury deliberations in professional liability cases inherently have a degree of unpredictability in outcome that cannot be underestimated. The second part of this series, which will be published in July, examines how risk management advice dovetails with hard lessons learned from professional liability litigation.