IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/reacre/v26y2014i2p145-163.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Litigation risk, financial reporting and auditing: A survey of the literature

Author

Listed:
  • Habib, Ahsan
  • Jiang, Haiyan
  • Bhuiyan, Md. Borhan Uddin
  • Islam, Ainul

Abstract

This paper surveys the literature on the determinants and consequences of securities class action lawsuits against firms and auditors from a financial reporting quality perspective. The survey is motivated by the important role that law plays in protecting stakeholders' interests against managerial misdeed. Litigation is, thus, an important topic and numerous studies investigate the determinants and consequences of firm and auditor lawsuits. The underlying premise of these studies is built on the notion that large financial and reputational penalties associated with successful securities class actions can discipline management and deter them from future wrongdoing. The survey documents that poor quality financial reporting as evidenced in earnings restatements has been the primary antecedent for class action lawsuits against the firm and auditors. Lawsuits against auditors affect audit fees, audit planning decisions and client portfolio adjustment decisions. Although significant progress has been made in terms of further understanding the causes and consequences of litigation against auditors, major challenges remain in the area of proper measurement of litigation risk.

Suggested Citation

  • Habib, Ahsan & Jiang, Haiyan & Bhuiyan, Md. Borhan Uddin & Islam, Ainul, 2014. "Litigation risk, financial reporting and auditing: A survey of the literature," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 145-163.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reacre:v:26:y:2014:i:2:p:145-163
    DOI: 10.1016/j.racreg.2014.09.005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1052045714000393
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.racreg.2014.09.005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Skinner, Dj, 1994. "Why Firms Voluntarily Disclose Bad-News," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 38-60.
    2. Marilyn F. Johnson & Ron Kasznik & Karen K. Nelson, 2001. "The Impact of Securities Litigation Reform on the Disclosure of Forward‐Looking Information By High Technology Firms," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 297-327, September.
    3. Cloyd, C. Bryan & Frederickson, James R. & Hill, John W., 1998. "Independent auditor litigation: Recent events and related research," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(2), pages 121-142.
    4. Nagar, Venky & Nanda, Dhananjay & Wysocki, Peter, 2003. "Discretionary disclosure and stock-based incentives," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-3), pages 283-309, January.
    5. Agnes Cheng, C.S. & He Huang, Henry & Li, Yinghua & Lobo, Gerald, 2010. "Institutional monitoring through shareholder litigation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 356-383, March.
    6. Amoah, Nana Y. & Tang, Alex P., 2013. "Resolution of restatement-induced lawsuits after the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 41-46.
    7. James D. Beck & Sanjai Bhagat, 1997. "Shareholder litigation: share price movements, news releases, and settlement amounts," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7-8), pages 563-586.
    8. Laux, Volker & Stocken, Phillip C., 2012. "Managerial reporting, overoptimism, and litigation risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(3), pages 577-591.
    9. Francis, Jere R., 2004. "What do we know about audit quality?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 345-368.
    10. Seetharaman, Ananth & Gul, Ferdinand A. & Lynn, Stephen G., 2002. "Litigation risk and audit fees: evidence from UK firms cross-listed on US markets," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 91-115, February.
    11. Hsihui Chang & Sang-Hyun Suh & Edward Werner & Jian Zhou, 2012. "The effect of SOX on the predictability of future cash flows in litigious and non-litigious industries," Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2), pages 210-226.
    12. Dechow, Patricia & Ge, Weili & Schrand, Catherine, 2010. "Understanding earnings quality: A review of the proxies, their determinants and their consequences," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 344-401, December.
    13. DeFond, Mark L. & Subramanyam, K. R., 1998. "Auditor changes and discretionary accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 35-67, February.
    14. Rogers, Jonathan L. & Van Buskirk, Andrew, 2009. "Shareholder litigation and changes in disclosure behavior," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1-2), pages 136-156, March.
    15. Skinner, Douglas J., 1997. "Earnings disclosures and stockholder lawsuits," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 249-282, November.
    16. Zhiyan Cao & Ganapathi S. Narayanamoorthy, 2011. "The Effect of Litigation Risk on Management Earnings Forecasts," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 125-173, March.
    17. Kasznik, R, 1999. "On the association between voluntary disclosure and earnings management," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(1), pages 57-81.
    18. Johnson, Marilyn F. & Nelson, Karen K. & Frankel, Richard M., 2002. "The Relation Between Auditor's Fees for Non-audit Services and Earnings Quality," Research Papers 1696r, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    19. Bernard S. Black & Brian R. Cheffins & Michael Klausner, 2006. "Outside Director Liability: A Policy Analysis," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 162(1), pages 5-20, March.
    20. AC Pritchard, 2007. "Do the Merits Matter More? The Impact of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(3), pages 627-652, October.
    21. Cohen, Daniel A. & Zarowin, Paul, 2010. "Accrual-based and real earnings management activities around seasoned equity offerings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 2-19, May.
    22. Kim, Irene & Skinner, Douglas J., 2012. "Measuring securities litigation risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 290-310.
    23. D. Katherine Spiess & Paula A. Tkac, 1997. "The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: the stock market casts its vote…," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7-8), pages 545-561.
    24. Stuart, Iris & Shin, Yong-Chul & Cram, Donald P. & Karan, Vijay, 2013. "Review of choice-based, matched, and other stratified sample studies in auditing research," Journal of Accounting Literature, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 88-113.
    25. Francis, J & Philbrick, D & Schipper, K, 1994. "Shareholder Litigation And Corporate Disclosures," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 137-164.
    26. Dain C. Donelson & John M. Mcinnis & Richard D. Mergenthaler, 2013. "Discontinuities and Earnings Management: Evidence from Restatements Related to Securities Litigation," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(1), pages 242-268, March.
    27. Volker Laux, 2010. "Effects of Litigation Risk on Board Oversight and CEO Incentive Pay," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(6), pages 938-948, June.
    28. Paul Hribar & Daniel W. Collins, 2002. "Errors in Estimating Accruals: Implications for Empirical Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 105-134, March.
    29. Jeff P. Boone & Inder K. Khurana & K. K. Raman, 2011. "Litigation Risk and Abnormal Accruals," Working Papers 0020, College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio.
    30. Romano, Roberta, 1991. "The Shareholder Suit: Litigation without Foundation?," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 55-87, Spring.
    31. Geiger, Marshall A. & Raghunandan, K. & Rama, Dasaratha V., 2006. "Auditor decision-making in different litigation environments: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, audit reports and audit firm size," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 332-353.
    32. Orie Barron & Jamie Pratt & James D. Stice, 2001. "Misstatement Direction, Litigation Risk, and Planned Audit Investment," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 449-462, December.
    33. Fuerman, Ross D., 2012. "Auditors and the post-2002 litigation environment," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 40-44.
    34. Gong, Guojin & Louis, Henock & Sun, Amy X., 2008. "Earnings management, lawsuits, and stock-for-stock acquirers' market performance," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 62-77, September.
    35. Juan Manuel García Lara & Beatriz García Osma & Fernando Penalva, 2009. "The Economic Determinants of Conditional Conservatism," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(3‐4), pages 336-372, April.
    36. Subramanyam, K. R., 1996. "The pricing of discretionary accruals," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1-3), pages 249-281, October.
    37. Basu, Sudipta, 1997. "The conservatism principle and the asymmetric timeliness of earnings," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 3-37, December.
    38. Hwang, Nen-Chen Richard & Chang, C. Janie, 2010. "Litigation environment and auditors' decisions to accept clients' aggressive reporting," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 281-295, June.
    39. Brad Badertscher & Bjorn Jorgensen & Sharon Katz & William Kinney, 2014. "Public Equity and Audit Pricing in the United States," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 303-339, May.
    40. Goldman, Eitan & Slezak, Steve L., 2006. "An equilibrium model of incentive contracts in the presence of information manipulation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(3), pages 603-626, June.
    41. Field, Laura & Lowry, Michelle & Shu, Susan, 2005. "Does disclosure deter or trigger litigation?," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 487-507, September.
    42. Healy, Paul M. & Palepu, Krishna G., 2001. "Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1-3), pages 405-440, September.
    43. Helland, Eric, 2006. "Reputational Penalties and the Merits of Class-Action Securities Litigation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 365-395, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jean Bédard & Suzanne M. Paquette, 2021. "Audit Committee Financial Expertise, Litigation Risk, and Auditor‐Provided Tax Services†," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 7-48, March.
    2. Lai, Jieji & Hu, Shiyang, 2024. "Bankruptcy judicial system reform and corporate financial litigation risk: A quasi-natural experiment in China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 62(PB).
    3. Bryan K. Church & Narisa Tianjing Dai & Xi (Jason) Kuang & Xuejiao Liu, 2020. "The Role of Auditor Narcissism in Auditor–Client Negotiations: Evidence from China," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1756-1787, September.
    4. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Taylor, Grantley & Monzur Hasan, Mostafa & Eulaiwi, Baban, 2023. "Third-party auditor liability and financial restatements," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    5. Luo, Yan & Krivogorsky, Victoria, 2017. "The materiality of directors' and officers' insurance information: Case for disclosure," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 69-74.
    6. Al-Hadi, Ahmed & Habib, Ahsan, 2023. "Consequences of state-level regulations in accounting, finance, and corporate governance: A review," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    7. Aditya Aji Prabhawa & Iman Harymawan, 2022. "Readability of Financial Footnotes, Audit Fees, and Risk Management Committee," Risks, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Muhammad Farhan Malik & Yuan George Shan & Jamie Yixing Tong, 2022. "Do auditors price litigious tone?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(S1), pages 1715-1760, April.
    9. Lin, Hsien-Ping & Walker, M. Mark & Wang, Yung-Jang, 2020. "Shareholder wealth effects of corporate fraud: Evidence from Taiwan’s securities investor and futures trader protection act," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 222-243.
    10. Licht, Amir N. & Poliquin, Christopher & Siegel, Jordan I. & Li, Xi, 2018. "What makes the bonding stick? A natural experiment testing the legal bonding hypothesis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(2), pages 329-356.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kim, Irene & Skinner, Douglas J., 2012. "Measuring securities litigation risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 290-310.
    2. Mary Brooke Billings & Matthew C. Cedergren & Svenja Dube, 2021. "Does litigation change managers’ beliefs about the value of voluntarily disclosing bad news?," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 26(4), pages 1456-1491, December.
    3. Allen Huang & Kai Wai Hui & Reeyarn Zhiyang Li, 2019. "Federal Judge Ideology: A New Measure of Ex Ante Litigation Risk," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 431-489, May.
    4. Lin, Hsien-Ping & Walker, M. Mark & Wang, Yung-Jang, 2020. "Shareholder wealth effects of corporate fraud: Evidence from Taiwan’s securities investor and futures trader protection act," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 222-243.
    5. Huilin Zhang & Xiaoran Ni & Qi Jin, 2023. "Litigating crashes? Insights from security class actions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(3), pages 2935-2963, September.
    6. Joshua Cutler & Angela K. Davis & Kyle Peterson, 2019. "Disclosure and the outcome of securities litigation," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 24(1), pages 230-263, March.
    7. Christian Leuz & Peter D. Wysocki, 2016. "The Economics of Disclosure and Financial Reporting Regulation: Evidence and Suggestions for Future Research," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 525-622, May.
    8. Billings, Mary Brooke & Cedergren, Matthew C., 2015. "Strategic silence, insider selling and litigation risk," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 119-142.
    9. Ying Huang & Ningzhong Li & Yong Yu & Xiaolu Zhou, 2020. "The Effect of Managerial Litigation Risk on Earnings Warnings: Evidence from a Natural Experiment," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(5), pages 1161-1202, December.
    10. Kraft, Anastasia & Lee, Bong Soo & Lopatta, Kerstin, 2014. "Management earnings forecasts, insider trading, and information asymmetry," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 96-123.
    11. Thomas Bourveau & Yun Lou & Rencheng Wang, 2018. "Shareholder Litigation and Corporate Disclosure: Evidence from Derivative Lawsuits," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 797-842, June.
    12. Hurwitz, Helen, 2017. "The understatement of large negative earnings news in managers’ annual guidance," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 119-133.
    13. Schantl, Stefan F. & Wagenhofer, Alfred, 2020. "Deterrence of financial misreporting when public and private enforcement strategically interact," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1).
    14. Lauren Cohen & Umit G. Gurun & Scott Duke Kominers, 2019. "Patent Trolls: Evidence from Targeted Firms," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5461-5486, December.
    15. Hanley, Kathleen Weiss & Hoberg, Gerard, 2012. "Litigation risk, strategic disclosure and the underpricing of initial public offerings," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(2), pages 235-254.
    16. Bliss, Barbara A. & Partnoy, Frank & Furchtgott, Michael, 2018. "Information bundling and securities litigation," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 61-84.
    17. Beyer, Anne & Cohen, Daniel A. & Lys, Thomas Z. & Walther, Beverly R., 2010. "The financial reporting environment: Review of the recent literature," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 296-343, December.
    18. Rogers, Jonathan L. & Van Buskirk, Andrew, 2009. "Shareholder litigation and changes in disclosure behavior," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1-2), pages 136-156, March.
    19. Karen K. Nelson & A. C. Pritchard, 2016. "Carrot or Stick? The Shift from Voluntary to Mandatory Disclosure of Risk Factors," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 13(2), pages 266-297, June.
    20. Agnes Cheng, C.S. & He Huang, Henry & Li, Yinghua & Lobo, Gerald, 2010. "Institutional monitoring through shareholder litigation," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3), pages 356-383, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:reacre:v:26:y:2014:i:2:p:145-163. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/research-in-accounting-regulation .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.