Chris Makin’s Recent Blog Posts
Companies House Searches Are USELESS!
Note: This blog is retained on page one for its enduring relevance.
Forensic Accountants In Matrimonial Cases
Note: This blog is retained on page one for its enduring relevance.
I receive many requests for help in family cases, but there are limits to how I can help and this blog explains what they are.
Expert Determination – So What’s New In 2026?
I must declare an interest: I am a keen advocate for expert determination (ED). Why? Because I have been doing them since about 1995, because I was in the first group of 5 to be accredited as an ED by The Academy of Expert (the only professional body to award this accolade), because I am […]
Your Expert Must Really Know The Business
So much of my work as an expert involves a business, obviously, since that falls directly into my expertise as a chartered accountant. But so often I come across opposing experts who haven’t taken the trouble to really know the business. And it’s not difficult. Let me give an example of a farmer, a tower […]
The Tribulations Of A Business Valuer
Why is everyone getting a divorce? An exaggeration, I know, but there’s certainly a lot of it about. And do I know it? As a human being, I have only pleasurable memories of marriage. I married Gillian, a farmer’s daughter, in 1969, and we had 52 years of happy companionship until she died four years […]
Another Expert Has A Bad Day
Recently, I wrote about Jeff Davidson, a friendly chap I had known for many years and, like me, one of the early practitioners of forensic accounting. He came a cropper in a case concerning the “diversion” of £1,900,000,000 (yes, really!) from a Ukrainian bank. This was a huge case which was heard over 43 days, […]
When Is An Expert Not An Expert?
As any litigator in England and Wales knows, Part 35.3 of CPR states that the expert has an overriding duty “to help the court on matters within their expertise.” And that expertise is measured by membership of appropriate professional bodies. I am typical: a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) and The Academy […]
Mediation: Floodgates, Or Yet Another False Dawn?
You may have seen my article last December, and many similar ones from other mediators, with the title “Have the Floodgates Finally Opened?” We rejoiced at the case of Churchill -v- Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council [2023] EWCA Civ 1416, where, at long last, the Court of Appeal overturned Halsey -v- Milton Keynes General NHS […]
Are Lawyers Numerate?
Well, are they? And do they understand business accounts? Some are, and some do – in fact, some are quite brilliant mathematicians – but many don’t, and I will share with you a few examples. First, we have lawyers who have confidence in the accounts filed at Companies House, and when a valuation is needed, […]
Post Office Scandal And Private Prosecutions
In a recent article for the legal press (Reputation or a life?) I expressed the view that in some organisations, even where lives are at risk, the powers that be think it is more important to preserve the reputation of that organisation than to protect the health or even the life, of those they should […]
Reputation Or A Life?
At present, we seem to be facing a continuous series of public enquiries on some weighty matters. I detect a trend. Let’s consider three such enquiries: the infected blood scandal, the sub-postmasters, and Lucy Letby. What do they have in common? Answer: in every case, those at the head of the organisation thought it essential […]