Compulsory Purchase
Quantification of business losses following compulsory purchase
Delivering outstanding results
Vero Consulting- Forensic Accountants
Vero Consulting provides expert and authoritative analysis and opinion on the financial, economic, accounting, fiscal and monetary aspects of disputes and investigations.
Testimonials
Charles's reports are carefully prepared and supported by thorough research. I would not hesitate in recommending him for big money and complex matrimonial cases.
I first came across Charles in a case where he had been appointed by the acquiring authority and I was advising the claimant. I found Charles to be extremely knowledgeable and a tough negotiator. His confident and professional delivery convinced me that I would much rather have him on my team in future. He never fails to deliver results!
Your service is always impeccable!
Charles is a pleasure to work with and his expertise in this field was clear to all involved in the case.
I found him to be very knowledgeable about how compensation should be quantified and was very supportive throughout the negotiations and in reaching settlement. His quiet confident manner assured me that I was in safe hands throughout!
It has been a pleasure to get to know you and I have enjoyed our various meetings. The insights and advice that you were able to provide me with during my divorce negotiations were invaluable. Should any of my friends be unfortunate enough to go through a similar situation, I would not hesitate to recommend you.
We found Charles's knowledge and understanding of the area to be highly professional and extremely competent, we were able to completely trust the advice he presented to us. His ability to provide “real world” experience in the matter was invaluable. I would wholeheartedly recommend Vero Consulting in any agency valuation matter.
I have not the words to adequately express my sincere gratitude. You have been exceptional and I recommend you unreservedly.
Charles has an astute legal mind which is firmly anchored in reality, enabling him to advise his clients on the best and most viable course of action. He is alert to the wider implications, and able to identify unforeseen opportunities. He makes and explains his case lucidly, and is a pleasure to work alongside.
Recent Blogs
Much of my work involves multi £million dispute resolution where clients expect communications to remain confidential or privileged. But clients still send me highly sensitive business information and bank account details in unencrypted emails.
A reminder of the dangers came from a rather surprising source today. One of my clients received a letter from HM Revenue & Customs where they set out the risks associated with sending information to them in emails. In their letter HMRC warned the client that using unencrypted emails could lead to the following risks:
- Confidentiality and privacy – there’s a risk that emails set over the internet may be intercepted
- Confirming your identity – It’s crucial that communications are with established contacts at their correct email addresses
- They warn there is no guarantee that any email received over an insecure network, like the internet, has not been altered during transit
- Attachments could contain a virus or malicious code.
The advice went on to suggest either “desensitising” information in emails or using encrypted emails.
The current global pandemic will continue to provide plenty of opportunities for fraud and opportunism. For example, there has been a substantial increase in phishing emails asking for either passwords, or inviting us to open attachments or to click on links.
Perhaps fraudsters recognise that as most of us are currently working from home on personal computers rather than office machines. This means we are operating outside corporate secure systems and procedures that we would have in the office.
Please now remind yourself and colleagues of the risks of doing so. I encourage all my clients to avoid including sensitive information in unencrypted emails, to password protect documents and memory sticks they send me and not to include bank account details in unencrypted emails.
While on this subject, we also need to check the urls of the sites we browse. Google say there are currently over 2 million phishing websites. Google’s Transparent Report contains up-to-date statistics and a tool for checking whether a site is safe (http://tiny.cc/safe-browsing).
In summary, we need to check the url of sites we visit, only open emails from trusted sources, encrypt sensitive emails, documents and memory sticks, use password managers and a VPN to access office files when working remotely.
What precautions do your organisations recommend and do you use encrypted emails for sensitive communications? Please share your own experiences in the comments box below or in an email to me. I am interested to hear your experience.
Keep Safe everyone,
Charles Lazarevic
New wording for Expert Witness’s Statement of Truth
Charles Lazarevic – Changes to CPR
A reminder to all solicitors that are currently instructing expert witnesses under CPR that from today PD35, paragraph 3.3 requires experts to include the following additional sentence in their Statement of Truth:
“I understand that proceedings for contempt of court may be brought against anyone who makes, or causes to be made, a false statement in a document verified by a statement of truth without an honest belief in its truth.”
The new wording reflects the seriousness with which courts view any false statements contained in a written report and follows the Court of Appeal’s guidance on dealing with such situations (not just for expert witnesses) following the decision in Liverpool Victoria Insurance Co.Ltd v Zafar [2019]EWCA Civ 392 to give the expert a suspended sentence. Dr Zafar had included information in his report at the request of his instructing solicitors that directly contradicted his actual findings on examination of the claimant and included an opinion on prognosis suggested by the solicitor.
The Court of Appeal decision discusses the appropriate sentence at some length and concludes that a prison term of no less than 12 months would have been appropriate in such situations and that it should be served immediately.
Presumably this additional wording will be introduced for Family Court or Criminal Court cases in due course.
This is a timely reminder to those that need forensic accountancy evidence that my firm chose “Vero Consulting” for its title to emphasise that truth forms the foundation for all our work. If you would like to discuss the implications of this change to CPR, please let me know.
Charles Lazarevic
1 October 2020
Business valuations in Russia
For our Russian clients we have created a new web page in Russian with details of some of the many expert witness reports and cross examination cases. These have included cases heard at arbitrations or courts in the UK and Cyprus for Russian companies and individuals.
We are a nimble and conflict free boutique firm of highly experienced forensic accountants. Our team can conduct assignments in any of nine European languages.
Assisting lawyers: preparing expert witnesses to give concurrent expert evidence
I have prepared a checklist for lawyers to consider when instructing experts to give concurrent expert evidence (commonly called “hot tubbing”) in court or at an arbitration. This guidance is based on my experience of giving concurrent expert evidence in arbitrations and in court.
Checklist:
• Always remember – the expert witness’s overriding duty is to assist the court/tribunal with their expertise.
• Draft the expert report in the knowledge that the judge/arbitrator may invite the expert with the apparently superior knowledge or more controversial position to take the lead in presenting the expert evidence.