This study explores two potential safeguards against liability when auditors exercise professional skepticism, but do not detect a fraud: (1) a firm policy requiring a specific level of professional skepticism in high-risk audit areas and (2) providing jurors with key differences between the...

We explore how audit committees (ACs) support audit engagement teams and whether AC support can improve auditors’ professional skepticism. We first survey audit practitioners and find that AC support is multidimensional, varies between engagements, and often is not communicated to the entire...

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board recently proposed amendments to the standard audit report that would require the disclosure of critical audit matters (CAMs), and the Securities and Exchange Commission continues to evaluate the use of principles-based (imprecise) accounting...

The U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board recently proposed changes to the audit reporting model that would require auditors to disclose areas of high audit risk within the audit report. Concerns about the proposal's potential to increase auditor liability have been raised by...

To effectively manage audit risk, auditors must anticipate potential litigation and reputation consequences associated with inaccurate accounting estimates. Our paper examines whether auditors correctly anticipate these consequences. We provided 57 manager- and partner-level auditors with case...

To effectively manage audit risk, auditors must correctly predict the potential litigation and reputation consequences associated with inaccurate accounting estimates. Accurate predictions are critical because underestimation of negative consequences leads to excess legal exposure and...