Certified Public Accountants Civil Liability To A Third Person

No matter in the accountancy field or law field, the certified accountants’(CPA) civil liability to the third party is an arguable issue. With the increasingly prosperous of the capital markets, the involved question of responsibility related to the third party is highlighted. As the current system, the legislation toward this issue is not clear enough, it resulting in a loss of law practice. The certified accountants to the legitimate rights of the third person can not be resolved properly. Traditional means is difficult to protect the interests of the people who suffering from losses, legitimate rights and of the third party can not be protected effectively, the damage can not be compensated timely. From the point of view of the combination of Accounting and Law, Making relevant discussions for the certified accountants’ civil liability to third party which related to the third party’S range、civil liability nature、 responsibility principle、and perfect civil liability system.The thesis is divided into four parts.In the first part is about the basic theory of CPA’s civil liability to third party. Firstly, Whether the CPA should extent to assume responsibility for the victims, which is a focus of controversy. By adopting the Anglo—American law system of views, based on our country current legal system, the author give the idea about the definition and scope of the third party. Secondly, this paper discusses the nature of the civil liability of CPA to the third party. There are two theories which are applied in the world; tort liability and contract liability. I agree to apply tort liability based on the expert’attention obligation and the third party’right of knowing the inside story.The second part is about the standard of duty and the burden of proof. The standard of duty is presumed be negligent, and the burden of proof is accordingly shifted to the defendant, based on the presumption of fiduciary between auditors and the third party, to lighten the quote obligation of the third party, because the third party is faced with the difficulty of quoting. CPA must prove the existence of excusing duty if he wants to gain the case.The third part analyses the determination and bear of compensation for damages. Concerning the burden of damage compensation, I analyze the main body of liability, which is not clearly prescribed in Our country law. To my way of think, the accountant office should take on the outside obligation, then went behind the CPA’duty. The compensation should set up compensation limitation such as the attorney law and the compensation extension should be limited in actual loss. On the sum, CPA will take on different duty:implicative duty or complementary duty, according to intent or misfeasance.Last but not least, the fourth part put forward some proposal for the improvement of the CPA’s liability system to third parties. It includes improving of legal system, constructing of CPA occupation insurance and audit committee system reform shall be implemented on the organization form of current accountant firms in China, and partnership with limited liability shall be adopted.