FirmHello
Tour Who it's for Features Security Pricing About
UK GBP

Currency and local tax terms

United States USD Canada CAD United Kingdom GBP Australia AUD
Get started
For disputes and investigations

A UK forensic accounting engagement letter for contested work

A forensic engagement is written for an audience that will attack it. The letter is the first document the other side will ask to see.

A forensic accounting engagement letter is the agreement that sets the terms on which a forensic accountant examines a financial question for a dispute or an investigation: who engages them, the question they are answering, what they will and will not do, and how any testimony is paid for. Everything about a forensic engagement is different from a compliance one. The work may be privileged or it may not, depending on who engages you. The output is a report that will be tested. You may be asked to give evidence, months after the fee was agreed, at an hourly rate nobody discussed.

Last reviewed against 3 primary sources.

Free download

Forensic accounting engagement letter

The full letter in Word and PDF, written for the United Kingdom, covering privilege, independence, reporting and testimony.

Download the PDF Download for Word

No email required.

Use the free engagement letter generator

Type in your firm, the client, the scope and the fee, and it writes a complete engagement letter for the United Kingdom, ready to print or save as a PDF. Nothing you type is stored.

Next step: send it to the client through FirmHello, where it stays on their record beside everything else they send you.

Get started

The letter below is written with all of that in front of it — including the awkward parts, like what happens to your fee if the client loses, and what you will and will not conclude.

What contested work demands of the letter

  1. 1

    Who engages you, and why it matters

    Engagement by counsel rather than by the party is a deliberate choice with consequences for privilege. Whoever it is, the letter must name them and say who may give instructions and who receives the report.

  2. 2

    The question you are answering

    Forensic scope is a question, not a service: quantify the loss between these dates on these assumptions. Write the question down, and write down the assumptions you were told to make.

  3. 3

    Independence, and what you will not do

    You are not an advocate. Say that your duty, where you give evidence, is to the court or tribunal and overrides your duty to the person paying you — because it does, and a letter that pretends otherwise damages the report.

  4. 4

    Testimony and contingency, priced separately

    Testimony, preparation and travel are their own rates. Contingent fees are improper for expert work in most jurisdictions; say the fee does not depend on the outcome.

The forensic accounting engagement letter

Written for United Kingdom. The downloads are the same text, as a Word document to edit and a PDF to put on your letterhead.

[Firm letterhead]

[Date]

[Instructing party: counsel or client]
[Address]

Dear [Contact],

Who we are engaged by

We are engaged by [name] in connection with [matter and, where relevant, the proceedings]. Instructions to us will be given by [name], and our report will be delivered to [name]. We understand that this engagement [is / is not] made in contemplation of litigation and that the question of privilege is a matter for [instructing counsel].

The question we are asked to address

Our scope is to [state the question precisely: quantify, trace, analyse, or opine on a defined issue for a defined period], on the basis of the documents and assumptions identified in the appendix.

We are not engaged to audit any financial statements, to express assurance, to reach a conclusion on any legal question, or to investigate anything outside the question above.

Independence and our duty

We will act independently and objectively. Where we give evidence, our duty to the court or tribunal overrides any duty to the party instructing or paying us, and our opinion will not change because it is unhelpful.

Our fees are not contingent in any way on the outcome of the matter or on the conclusions we reach.

Information, and its limits

Our work will be based on the documents and information provided to us. Where information is incomplete or unavailable, we will say so in the report and describe the effect on our conclusions. We will not verify the authenticity of documents unless that is expressly part of the scope.

Reporting

We will deliver [an oral briefing followed by, where instructed, a written report]. Any written report will set out our instructions, the documents relied on, the assumptions made, our analysis and our conclusions, together with any limitations. Drafts are provided for factual comment only; our conclusions are ours.

Testimony

Court attendance, discussions between experts, preparation and travel are charged at [rate] per hour, with [number] hours' cancellation notice required. Being called to give evidence is not included in any fee estimate for the analysis itself.

Fees

Our fees are charged at [rates] in pounds sterling, with an estimate for the initial phase of [amount]. We require [amount] on account before work begins and will invoice [monthly], payable within [number] days. We may suspend work on unpaid invoices, including in the period before a hearing.

Confidentiality and the file

We keep the engagement confidential except where the law, a court order or our professional body requires disclosure. Our file may be disclosable in the proceedings. We hold information in accordance with the UK GDPR and retain the file for [number] years.

Agreement

Please sign and return a copy, together with the papers listed in the appendix.

[Name], [Firm name]

Agreed by [Instructing party]:

Signature ______________________ Date ____________

Before you use this

Supplied as-is, with no guarantee. These templates are general information, not legal advice, and not a substitute for it. Have your own legal adviser review and adapt one to your practice and your jurisdiction before you put it in front of a client. FirmHello accepts no responsibility or liability for any use made of them.

Expert evidence in UK civil claims and the forensic letter

If the work may become expert evidence in a civil claim in England and Wales, the Civil Procedure Rules apply from the first letter. CPR 35.3 makes the duty to help the court override any obligation to whoever instructs or pays, and no report is used without the court's permission.

The report must state that the expert understands that duty and set out the substance of all material instructions, whose privilege the rules limit. Write the instructions expecting the other side to read them.

Terms the guidance lists

The Civil Justice Council's 2014 guidance, to which Practice Direction 35 refers experts, says terms should be agreed at the outset, including the capacity of the appointment, the services, the basis of charges, cancellation charges, court attendance fees and when payment is due.

Single joint experts

Where the court directs a single joint expert, the instructing parties are jointly and severally liable for the expert's fees and expenses under CPR 35.8. Name every instructing party in the letter and say how the fees are split between them.

Outcome-linked fees

The same guidance says paying an expert's fees contingent on the nature of the evidence or the outcome of the case is strongly discouraged. A fee clause that says the fee is independent of both removes the question before cross-examination.

Fees the court may limit

Parties must give the court estimates of expert costs, and the court may limit what is recoverable. The letter should say that the instructing party remains responsible for the agreed fee, whatever is later recovered from the other side.

What damages a forensic engagement

Scope written as a service

"Forensic accounting services" tells a cross-examiner nothing was defined. A written question and a written list of assumptions are the spine of a report that survives.

Assumptions absorbed silently

Every instruction to assume something must appear in the report. An assumption you were given and did not disclose looks, later, like an opinion you formed.

Testimony priced as an afterthought

Two days in a hearing eighteen months on, at rates agreed for desk work, is how a profitable engagement becomes a loss.

Other engagement letters

What it is Engagement letters Fiduciary accounting Fiduciary Audit Audit

Questions about forensic engagements

Should counsel engage us rather than the client?

Where privilege matters it is common, and it is a question for the lawyers rather than for us. Whichever it is, the letter should name the instructing party, who may instruct, and who receives the report.

Can a forensic fee ever be contingent?

For expert work it is generally improper, and it undermines the independence the report depends on. The letter says the fee does not depend on the outcome for exactly that reason.

What if our conclusions do not help the instructing party?

They do not change. Saying so in advance, in the engagement letter, is what makes it straightforward when it happens.

Does this template cover expert witness duties?

Only at the level of principle. Courts and tribunals impose their own requirements on experts, in their own words, and those govern. Take advice for the forum you are in.

Sources

The primary sources this page is written against, last read against it on . Check them before relying on a detail; rules and thresholds change.

  1. Ministry of Justice CPR 35.3 overriding duty
  2. Ministry of Justice PD 35 para 1 refers experts to the Guidance for the Instruction of Experts in Civil…
  3. Courts and Tribunals Judiciary Civil Justice Council guidance for the instruction of experts (2014)

What changed

  • Added an editable Word (.docx) copy of the letter beside the PDF.
  • Added the section on what UK law adds, written from primary sources, and reviewed the shared letter text for wording that only US law supports.

The letter is the easy half

Sending it, getting it back signed, and finding it again in two years is the half that eats the week. That is what the portal is for.

No card and no sales call. If you would rather tell us about your firm first, use the longer form.