In any walk of life, when something unexpectedly goes wrong the blame game invariably begins. And when the wagging finger of guilt is left point at a particular individual or business, legal action can often follow.
This is the reason for many professional negligence cases, which Frenkels Forensics assists with on a regular basis.
One of the more high-profile examples of a professional negligence case to emerge recently was a £9 million bill that landed at the feet of the UK government after an administrative error caused a family business to collapse.
Companies House, which is an offshoot of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, reported that Cardiff-based Taylor & Sons Ltd had been wound up, when it was in fact another company by the same name that had gone bust. However, despite the government’s attempts to quickly rectify the error, the damage was done; the Welsh firm, which has been run for 124 years, explained: “We lost all our credibility as all our suppliers thought we were in liquidation. It was like a snowball effect.”
The business crumbled in the immediate aftermath of Companies House incorrectly publishing that it had gone under, as the engineering firm could not recover from the damage caused.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor & Sons pursued legal action to reverse the effects of Companies House’s negligence, with the bill put forward amounting to £9 million. It is a costly price for a simple but devastating error. Indeed, when you consider the loss of contracts, loss of suppliers, loss of customers and general damage to reputation, it is easy to see why the figure was so high.
Unfortunately, situations like this are not uncommon; even small, careless mistakes from one individual or business can have a huge domino effect. The job of the forensic accounting experts at Frenkels Forensics is to assess the full range of damage cause by these toppling dominos.
Both claimants and defendants will need skilled and experienced support when confronted with a professional negligence case so that the full picture is taken into consideration and a fair value of compensation is arrived at.
For expert help with a professional negligence case contact Frenkels Forensics for an independent appraisal.
Alternatively, if you’re looking for advice in any aspect of forensic accountancy, then do get in touch via Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or by visiting our website www.frenkels.com
By Vitek Frenkel – find me via Google+.