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Court-Appointed or Jointly Retained Financial Experts

By William J. Morrison

Financial experts are generally used in matrimonial matters to identify, value and help in the distribution of marital assets and also opine on issues such as income, cash flow, tax consequences or marital liabilities. Financial experts (experts) are usually retained in matrimonial matters in one of three ways: privately (hired by either the Plaintiff or Defendant), jointly (consensually by the Plaintiff and Defendant) or through court appointment. For simplicity, the court-appointed expert and the jointly retained expert will both be referred to as a “joint expert.” The expert retained by a litigant will be referred to as a “retained” expert.

Are there differences in the level of service and conclusions if a financial expert is privately retained, jointly retained or appointed by a court? Ideally, the manner in which the expert is retained should have no bearing on the work performed or opinions reached because, regardless of who retains the expert, the work should be performed independently and with objectivity. That, however, is not always the case, and there can be significant procedural and work flow issues, depending on how the expert is retained. Throughout this article, the New Jersey Court Rules are cited by way of example.

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