Future Litigation Research Articles

Reliance Interests and Future DACA Litigation

DACA recipients have shown strong reliance interests. The oral argument recently at the Supreme Court left out of the discussion DACA recipients' reliance on form I-821D's instructions, and more specifically its privacy clause, which have the force of law. Since instructions in immigration forms are considered incorporated as part of the federal regulations, they have the force of law. 8 CFR 103.2(a). This point was not considered and should be part of any discussion of DACA-related future litigation. The government's arguments concerning an attempt at limiting liability or judicial review are unpersuasive.This short article discusses the ramifications of these points for future DACA litigation.

Spillover Effects in Securities Litigation

Securities litigation is relatively rare but can significantly affect sued firms. We extend this research by examining the spillover effect of securities litigation on industry peers using a sample of disclosure-related litigation—distinct from events such as restatements and SEC enforcement. We find investors respond immediately as peers exhibit negative abnormal returns before and after case filings. Additionally, peers provide more voluntary earnings and sales forecasts. Notably, investors and peers respond primarily to cases that eventually settle, where litigation costs are concentrated. Further, disclosure results are concentrated in growth firms, where voluntary disclosure is most important, and in low litigation industries, where litigation is more noteworthy. Peers also adjust attributes of mandatory disclosures: disclosures become shorter, more readable, and contain fewer litigation-related terms. These changes appear successful as peers have lower future litigation incidence. Collectively, our findings indicate securities litigation has significant effects beyond the firms that directly face litigation.

Requirements upon Agreements in Favour of the NCC and the German Chambers – Clashing with the Brussels Ibis Regulation?

In recent years, the Netherlands and Germany have added themselves to the ever-growing number of countries opting for the creation of an international commercial court. The Netherlands Commercial Court (NCC) and the German Chambers for International Commercial Disputes (Kammern für internationale Handelssachen, KfiH) will conduct proceedings entirely in English and follow their own, diverging rules of civil procedure. Aspiring to become the future venues of choice in international commercial disputes, the NCC law and the legislative proposal for the establishment of the KfiH allow parties to agree on their jurisdiction and entail detailed provisions regulating such agreements. In particular, the NCC requires the parties’ express and in writing agreement to litigate before it. In a similar vein, the KfiH legislative proposal requires in some instances an express and in writing agreement. Although such strict formal requirements are justified by the need to safeguard the procedural rights of weaker parties such as small enterprises and protect them from the peculiarities of the NCC and the KfiH, this article questions their compliance with the requirements upon choice of court agreements under Article 25 (1) Brussels Ibis Regulation. By qualifying agreements in favour of the NCC and the KfiH first as functional jurisdiction agreements and then as procedural or court language agreements this article concludes that the formal requirements set by the NCC law and the KfiH proposal undermine the effectiveness of the Brussels Ibis Regulation, complicate the establishment of these courts’ jurisdiction and may thus threaten their attractiveness as future litigation destinations.

Jury verdicts and outcomes of malpractice cases involving arteriovenous hemodialysis access.

To analyze malpractice cases involving hemodialysis access to prevent future litigation and improve physician education. Jury verdict reviews from the WESTLAW database from 1 January 2005 to 1 January 2015 were reviewed. The search terms "hemodialysis," "dialysis," "graft," "fistula," "AVG," "AVF," "arteriovenous," "catheter," "permacatheter," and "shiley" were used to compile data on the demographics of the defendant, plaintiff, allegation, complication, and verdict. Sixty-six cases involving the litigation pertaining to hemodialysis catheter, arteriovenous fistula (AVF) or arteriovenous grafts (AVGs) were obtained. Of these, 55% involved catheter-based hemodialysis access, 18% involved AVF, and 27% involved AVG. The most frequent physician defendants were vascular surgeons (36%), internists (14%), nephrologists (14%), general surgeons (9%), and interventional radiologists (6%). Of the patients, 38% involved were male and the average patient age was 56.3 (standard deviation (SD) = 20.1) years. Region of injury was 50% in the neck or chest, 42% in the arm, and 8% in the groin. Injury was listed as death in 79% of cases. Of the deaths, 95% involved bleeding at some point in the chain of events. The most common claims related to the cases were failure to perform the surgery or procedure safely (44%), failure to diagnose and treat in a timely manner (30%), and negligent hemodialysis treatment (11%). The most common complications cited were hemorrhage (62%), loss of function of limb (15%), and ischemia due to steal syndrome (11%). A total of 26 cases (39%) were found for the plaintiff or settled. The median award was US$463,000 with a mean of US$985,299 (SD = US$1,314,557). While popular opinion may indicate that steal syndrome is a commonly litigated complication, our data reveal that the most common injury litigated is death which may frequently be the result of a hemorrhagic episode. In addition to hemorrhage, the remaining most common complications included steal syndrome and loss of limb function. Therefore, steps to better prevent, diagnose and treat bleeding, nerve injury, and steal syndrome in a timely manner are critical to preventing hemodialysis-access-associated litigation.

Assumption of Risk and the Role of Health Warnings Labels in the United States.

This article provides historical context for understanding how the cigarette industry have manipulated language used in health warning labels (HWLs) to protect them in litigation. Review of previously secret internal business records from 1964 discussing the role HWLs on cigarettes. Review of the legal challenges made by cigarette manufacturers surrounding HWLs as mandated in the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and the language in corrective statements ordered by US Department of Justice. Within days after the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee issued its 1964 Report the cigarette companies plotted how they could use HWLs on cigarettes as a defense in future litigation. Industry lawyers discussed drafting legislation that would preempt other government agencies from requiring HWLs on cigarette containers and in cigarette advertising with language mirroring the key findings of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee report. In July 1965, Congress did pass legislation which mandated a single watered-down cigarette pack HWL which excluded cigarette advertising, just as industry lawyers had recommended. Subsequent HWL laws passed by Congress in 1969 and 1984 along with the more recent history of manufacturers opposing updated graphic HWLs and corrective statements reflects a consistent and continuing effort by cigarette companies to insulate themselves from taking responsibility for harms caused by smoking. Beginning in the mid-1960s and continuing even through today, lawyers working on behalf of cigarettes companies have worked to manipulate the language of consumer warnings to focus responsibility for the harms caused by smoking on smokers. In tobacco litigation, juries should be informed about the industry's coordinated effort to draft legislation and water down the original caution statements proposed on cigarette containers and in advertising even though Congress ultimately is responsible for the law that was enacted. In addition, even though the 1992 Supreme Court decision in the Cipollone case preempted post-1969 failure to warm claims against cigarette makers, this protection does not apply on pre-1969 warning claims where the evidence shows that cigarette companies understood they were selling a defective product that when used as intended would harm their customers. Thus, those initiating smoking before 1969 and subsequently harmed by cigarettes can hold cigarette makers responsible for their failure to warn them about health risks.

Good Cop, Bad Cop: Using Civilian Allegations to Predict Police Misconduct

In response to high-profile cases of police misconduct, reformers are calling for greater use of civilian allegations in identifying potential problem officers. This paper applies an Empirical Bayes framework to data on civilian allegations and civil rights litigation in Chicago to assess the predictive value of civilian allegations for serious future misconduct. We find a strong relationship between allegations and future civil rights litigation, especially for the very worst officers. The worst 1 percent of officers, as measured by civilian allegations, generate almost 5 times the number of payouts and over 4 times the total damage payouts in civil rights litigation. These findings suggest that intervention efforts could be fruitfully concentrated among a relatively small group. (JEL H76, K38, K42)

Privatized corrections

Research SummaryIn this article, I look at some of the statutory and case law that has shaped the evolving regulation of the private prison industry. I also examine some critical gaps in legal issues regarding private contractors that manage prisons, jails, and detention facilities. The privatization of justice encompasses all for‐profit firms that make money in the prison‐industrial complex. Critical unanswered legal questions run the gamut from whether it is legal for corporations to pay undocumented detainees to work inside detention centers to whether it is legal for a private probation company to extend a probationer's supervision.Policy ImplicationsThe United States has never fully wrestled with many of the questions that private prisons raise. As private firms stretch across state lines contracting with the government at the local, state, and federal levels, their authority and accountability is not always settled law. Additionally, moral considerations have infrequently made their way into America's jurisprudential history in grappling with issues around privatizing corrections, raising possibilities of future litigation focusing on ideological grounds.

Navigating the Ambiguities and Uncertainties of the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act of 2016

With an admirable purpose, a celebrity endorsement from Dame Helen Mirren, and unanimous support in Congress, the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery Act (HEAR Act), passed in late 2016, appears to be a rare legislative success. Its congressional momentum, however, belies the pitfalls that inhere in its text. The Act’s nuanced and often ambiguous language raises many questions to be addressed in future litigation over restitution claims to Nazi-looted art. The HEAR Act was meant to address a perceived problem that legitimate claims to recover art looted by the Nazis were not being heard “on the merits” in U.S. courts, but were instead too frequently being dismissed as brought too late—in particular, blocked by courts’ application of state statutes of limitations. And, at a minimum, disputes over the timeliness of claims to Nazi-looted art rendered litigation of such claims protracted and costlier. The Act sought to relieve claimants of these obstacles by instituting a nationwide six-year limitations period running from “actual knowledge” of the relevant facts. Despite its relatively short length, the HEAR Act brings a number of interpretive difficulties that will give rise to a new set of litigation hurdles for both claimants and possessors of artworks subject to claims. This Article is meant as a guide to courts and litigants in navigating key ambiguities and uncertainties in the statute. The Article discusses the Act in three parts. First, we briefly explain the context in which the Act was enacted: the history of United States and international efforts to return art lost during the Holocaust to rightful owners. Second, we describe the Act’s consideration by Congress and its operative provisions. We finally discuss half a dozen instances in which the HEAR Act’s language is unclear, ambiguous, or raises difficult issues about the application or scope of the statute. Several of these instances are ambiguities created by the text of the statute, which is often in tension with its legislative history; others reflect an apparent mismatch between the statutory language and the practical reality of litigation. Where possible, we suggest what we believe is the most plausible and compelling reading of problematic statutory language in light of the text, history, and purposes of the Act, as well as the realities of litigation over Nazi-era art restitution claims. Our concern with the uncertainties created by the Act’s language is not theoretical. Litigants are already espousing conflicting interpretations of the Act’s language on some of the points discussed below, and courts have already reached holdings at odds with the statute’s language or legislative history (and sometimes both). All in, an Act meant to streamline claims to recover Nazi-looted art may well end up making such litigation costlier and more time-consuming for parties and courts as litigants argue for their preferred meaning of the Act’s terms.

The Manus Island Regional Processing Centre: A Legal Taxonomy

Abstract This article considers the controversial cooperative migration control approach of extraterritorial asylum through a case study of the Manus Island Regional Processing Centre (RPC), in operation between 2012 and 2017. Rather than operating in a ‘legal black hole’, the RPC was the site of legal contestation, as refugees and their lawyers turned to various legal fora in an attempt to hold Australia, Papua New Guinea and private contractors responsible for violations of human rights law. The recent closure of the RPC, as a result of litigation in the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court, shows that just as States employ a broad range of deterrence policies, refugee lawyers have an emerging ‘toolbox’ at their disposal to challenge extraterritorial asylum policies. The Manus Island RPC experience holds lessons for future litigation on policies of extraterritorial asylum, presenting both opportunities and risks for policymakers and refugee lawyers alike.

KlimaSeniorinnen: lessons from the Swiss senior women's case for future climate litigation

As older women are particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts, a group of senior women in Switzerland founded the association KlimaSeniorinnen Schweiz (Senior Women for Climate Protection Switzerland) in order to fight for ambitious climate action by legally challenging the Swiss government's inadequate climate policies and mitigation measures. The KlimaSeniorinnen filed a legal request with the authorities, claiming that the Swiss authorities are failing to fulfil their duty to protect them as required by the Swiss Constitution and by the European Convention on Human Rights. This article provides a detailed analysis of the KlimaSeniorinnen case within the context of climate litigation worldwide. It argues that the case's human rights arguments, which are grounded in climate science, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Paris Agreement, environmental principles and international law, are generally transferable to almost any country. Therefore, vulnerable individuals and groups can learn from the KlimaSeniorinnen litigation that there are strong legal grounds to bring human-rights-based climate lawsuits against governments and thus governments should expect more litigation if their climate actions or omissions contravene international law and violate constitutional principles.

Private Property and Aboriginal Title: What is the Role of Equity in Mediating Conflicting Claims?

Following the Supreme Court of Canada's declaration of Aboriginal title in the Tsilhqot'in Nation decision, the frequency of conflicts between Aboriginal title and private property interests is likely to increase. This paper argues that the most significant treatment of the issue, the Chippewas of Sarnia Band v. Canada (Attorney General) decision, in which the Ontario Court of Appeal relied on equitable doctrines to bar an Aboriginal title claim which would have impacted private property, should not be taken as persuasive authority. The paper presents two arguments in support of this conclusion. First, it is argued that the case incorrectly applied principles of common law and equity, and therefore includes errors of law which should not be repeated. Second, it argues that in the event that the Chippewas decision was correctly decided, its applicability can be limited in two important respects. First, the case can likely be distinguished on the facts from most cases involving Aboriginal title lands. The Supreme Court's decision in Guerin provides one such example. Second, the 'constitutional exception' created in the Supreme Court's Manitoba Metis Federation decision, where the majority of the Court held that the policy rationales underpinning the recognition of s.35 Aboriginal rights can prevent the application of statutes of limitation and equitable doctrines, should operate to exclude the Chippewas of Sarnia reasoning in many circumstances. Thus, the paper concludes that, whether it was rightly or wrongly decided, Chippewas of the Sarnia should be understood as having limited precedential value in future litigation concerning conflicts between Aboriginal title and private property interests. The framework articulated in Manitoba Metis should instead be relied on to motivate the parties to negotiated solutions.

Financial Statement Footnote Readability and Corporate Audit Outcomes

SUMMARYWe examine whether the readability of financial statement footnotes in the annual report is informative about audit engagement risk. Using various readability measures, we predict and find that firms with less readable footnotes have longer audit report lag, incur higher audit fees, and are more likely to receive a first time modified going concern opinion. We also show that readability of footnotes is associated with a higher likelihood of financial misstatements and future accounting-related litigation. Our results are robust to several measures of readability used in prior literature, as well as different specifications and design choices, revealing that financial statement footnote readability provides incremental information about audit engagement risk that affects auditor-client contracting.Data Availability: Data are obtained from public sources identified in the paper.

Can State Courts Cure Partisan Gerrymandering: Lessons from <i>League of Women Voters v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania</i> (2018)

In League of Women Voters et al. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et al. (2018), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down that state’s congressional plan as an unconstitutional partisan gerrymander. It did so entirely on state law grounds after a three-judge federal court had rejected issuing a preliminary injunction against the plan. The aim of this essay is to examine the implications of LWV for future partisan gerrymandering litigation. In particular, we look toward the applicability of the Pennsylvania court’s approach to other potential partisan gerrymandering challenges brought under state law, especially those in the twelve states whose state constitutions have provisions essentially identical to the one relied upon by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, and in states with similar provisions. We pay particular attention to how the Court made use of the expert witness testimony in the case, relying on some of it, while rejecting or critiquing the applicability of other elements, since such a discussion can inform future litigation in state courts drawing on the LWV opinion for ideas. In our concluding discussion we contrast the criteria used to evaluate partisan gerrymandering by this court with those used by federal courts, and we look at how it may impact the decisions of legislators about line drawing in 2020.

National Tax Regulation, Voluntary International Standards, and the GATS:Argentina–Financial Services

AbstractCan a WTO Member discriminate against foreign suppliers of services located in jurisdictions that refuse to share information with a government to permit it to determine if its nationals engage in tax evasion? Does it matter if the Member uses standards developed by an international body as the criterion for deciding whether to impose measures? InArgentina–Financial Services,the WTO Appellate Body held that services from jurisdictions that share financial tax information may be different from services provided by jurisdictions that do not cooperate in supplying such information. It overruled a Panel finding that measures to increase taxes on financial transactions with non-cooperative jurisdictions were discriminatory. We argue that the AB reached the right conclusion on the basis of the wrong arguments; that it missed an important opportunity to clarify what WTO Members are permitted to do to enforce their domestic regulatory regimes; and increased the scope for confusion and future litigation by considering that the likeness of services and service suppliers may be a function of prevailing domestic regulatory regimes.

MP57-15 ASSESSING PRIMARY CARE PATTERNS FOR PROSTATE SPECIFIC ANTIGEN SCREENING IN AN INNER CITY, INDIGENT POPULATION

You have accessJournal of UrologyProstate Cancer: Detection & Screening V1 Apr 2018MP57-15 ASSESSING PRIMARY CARE PATTERNS FOR PROSTATE SPECIFIC ANTIGEN SCREENING IN AN INNER CITY, INDIGENT POPULATION Jyoti Chouhan, John Sullivan, Melissa Lee, Anthony Sorrentino, Abdo Kabaritti, and Andrew Winer Jyoti ChouhanJyoti Chouhan More articles by this author , John SullivanJohn Sullivan More articles by this author , Melissa LeeMelissa Lee More articles by this author , Anthony SorrentinoAnthony Sorrentino More articles by this author , Abdo KabarittiAbdo Kabaritti More articles by this author , and Andrew WinerAndrew Winer More articles by this author View All Author Informationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2018.02.1827AboutPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints ShareFacebookTwitterLinked InEmail INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Primary care providers (PCPs) provide their male patients with information and recommendations regarding prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing. Little is known regarding what factors affect their PSA screening preferences in an indigent, high risk and underserved setting after the 2012 United States Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation. METHODS A 24 question survey was created and distributed to PCPs at a single, tertiary, academic, inner city, county hospital in Brooklyn, New York. RESULTS A total of 41 responses were obtained: 19 males (46.3%), 21 females (51.2%) and 1 preferred not to answer. Most respondents practiced internal medicine (n= 31/40, 77.5%), were an attending physician (n=22/39, 56.4%) or resident physician (n= 10, 25.6%). The main patient populations served were Afro-Caribbean (AC), African American (AA) and Hispanic. The majority of providers cited government based guidelines as their primary means of altering their medical decision-making (n = 33/42, 78.6%) and noted that the 2012 USPSTF recommendations for PSA based screening did not change their practice (n=22/38, 57.9%). For those whose decision changed, it did so primarily by having a shared decision making process with the patient (n = 18/30, 60%). Most providers had little familiarity with PSA recommendations from other organizations (e.g., The American Urological Association). When asked if their practice would change if the USPSTF changed their PSA screening recommendation from a Category D to C, most felt unsure (n = 21/40, 52.5%). However, if it were to change from a Category D to A or B, the majority would change their current practice (n = 30/40, 75%). On a scale of 1-5, the majority of providers felt that race and a positive family history strongly influenced (>/= 4/5) their PSA screening decisions as well (n = 23/41, 56.1% and n = 30/41, 73.2%, respectively). On a scale of 1-5, several providers strongly felt (>/= 4/5) that not routinely recommending PSA screening could lead to future litigation regarding failure to diagnose disease (n = 17/41, 41.5%). CONCLUSIONS PCPs at an academic, inner city, county hospital rely heavily on government based screening recommendations to help in their decision making. However, most providers did not change their PSA screening practices despite a USPSTF Category D recommendation in this high risk population. Positive family history and race play a strong role in their recommending PSA based screening to this predominantly AC and AA based population regardless of the current USPSTF recommendation. © 2018FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 199Issue 4SApril 2018Page: e770 Advertisement Copyright & Permissions© 2018MetricsAuthor Information Jyoti Chouhan More articles by this author John Sullivan More articles by this author Melissa Lee More articles by this author Anthony Sorrentino More articles by this author Abdo Kabaritti More articles by this author Andrew Winer More articles by this author Expand All Advertisement Advertisement PDF downloadLoading ...

‘Fossil Fueling the Apocalypse’: Australian Coal Subsidies and the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures

AbstractGlobal fossil fuel subsidies are substantial and contribute to climate change. They also undermine the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. However, under the WTO, the international community's foremost economic institution, it is renewable energy subsidies, not fossil fuel subsidies, that have been subjected to litigation. To date, no fossil fuel subsidy has ever been brought before the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). This paper makes a unique contribution to the literature on energy subsidies by applying the WTO covered Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (1994) (SCM Agreement) to a specific government measure designed to support the coal export industry in Australia: namely, the proposed concessional loan for the construction of a rail line between the Carmichael coal mine and Abbot Point coal port by the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility (NAIF). In finding that this measure is in breach of the SCM Agreement, this paper foreshadows future litigation and provides guidance to non-government organizations (NGOs) seeking to identify other unlawful fossil fuel subsidies.

Inferior Vena Cava Filter Malpractice Litigation: Damned if You Do, Damned if You Don't

The aim of this study was to analyze malpractice litigation trends and to better understand the causes and outcomes of suits involving inferior vena cava filters (IVCF) to prevent future litigation and improve physician education. Jury verdict reviews from the Westlaw database from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2015, were reviewed. The search term "inferior vena cava filter" was used to compile data on the demographics of the defendant, plaintiff, allegation, complication, and verdict. A total of 156 cases were identified. Duplicates and cases in which the IVCF was incidentally included were excluded from the analysis. Forty-nine cases involving either failure to place or a complication of IVCF placement were identified. Throughout the last 15years, there has been increased number of jury verdicts toward IVCF. The most frequent defendants were internal medicine physicians (38%), vascular surgeons (19%), and cardiothoracic surgeons (12%). The most frequent claims were denied treatment or delay in treatment (in 35% of cases), negligent surgery (in 24% of cases), and failure to diagnose and treat complications (in 24% of cases). Of these, the most frequent specific claims were failure to place IVC filter (41%), implantation failure such as misplacement and/or misaligned implant (24%), erosion of IVC/retroperitoneal bleed (6%), and discontinuation of anticoagulation prematurely (6%). Seventeen cases (35%) were found for the plaintiff, with median awards worth of $1,092,500. In the 21 cases where pulmonary embolism (PE) was involved (43% of cases), 19 were fatal (90%). Of the fatal PE cases, 8 cases ended with verdicts in favor of the plaintiff (42%). Both nonfatal PE cases were won by the defense. IVCF placement with subsequent PE and death results in verdicts that favor the plaintiffs. This study emphasizes that adequate and transparent communication regarding preoperative planning, decision for IVCF placement, and informed consent may reduce the frequency of litigation. Public awareness of complications related to the placement of IVCF is increasing largely and spurned by aggressive advertising and marketing by plaintiff attorneys. Conditions for which IVCF placement is contemplated carry significant risk of malpractice litigation.

JURISDICTIONAL GATEWAYS IN THE CPR

IF no substitute is negotiated for the Brussels Recast Regulation (1215/2012) on “Brexit”, the provisions in the Civil Procedure Rules 1998 (CPR) for permission to serve claims out of the jurisdiction may assume a greater significance in future cross-border litigation. So the timing of the Supreme Court's decision in Four Seasons Holding Inc. v Brownlie [2017] UKSC 80, [2018] 1 W.L.R. 192 is apposite.

EU Competition Law Put to the Brexit Test: What Impact Might the Exit of the UK from the Union Have on the Enforcement of the Competition Rules?

This contribution examines some of the consequences of the UK’s exit from the European Union for the enforcement of the competition rules. It reflects on the impact that Brexit is going to have on future transnational antitrust litigation in Britain and Europe. Thereafter it analyses the challenges that Brexit is likely to present for cooperation in public competition enforcement and suggests solutions for future development.

Towards a more accurate audit assessment: can corporate social performance provide clues?

Regulators have been particularly concerned with the increased frequency of auditor's deficiencies related to material misstatement as reported in the 2017 Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) inspection brief. This research examines the relationship between auditor's risk of failing to capture material misstatement and the clients' social responsibility concerns. The findings indicate that clients with social performance concerns (human rights, environment, and governance) were associated with higher auditor's risk assessment, as indicated by higher audit fees. The results are consistent after controlling for various auditor and client variables. Implications of this study support the importance of incorporating social performance of clients in the auditor's evaluation since it can provide key insights into the client's underlying risk of future litigations which can arise due to socially irresponsive behaviours. In doing so, we seek to come closer to an accurate client assessment as well as respond to the call of PCAOB for minimising the deficiencies of the auditing process particular in the area of material misstatement.