[barelystayingsane]

I apologize for bombarding the forum with AUD questions tonight, but I’m just so darn curious!

Why is the client refusing to allow the accountant correspondence with legal counsel grounds for withdrawing from the review engagement? Based on what I’ve read in the textbook and from working the questions, the accountant shouldn’t even really be contacting the lawyer with inquiries during the review. Is it just the fact that not allowing the accountant to communicate with legal counsel implies that there is something fishy going on?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I think it's the latter option – that a client's refusal indicates something fishy. Like you say, legal correspondence isn't required or necessarily even common in a review…so I think the idea is “In a review, you can't investigate enough to know for sure if management is honest…so if you're getting weird signals, back out while you have a chance.” Nice, concrete, scientific basis for the decision, ay? 😉

[Author]

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