The Financial Accounting Standards Board’s (FASB) recent decision to extend to Dec. 31, 2009, the proposed effective date of a new expanded standard for reporting loss contingencies may be a mixed blessing for general counsel and the defense bar.
The decision allows counsel to put the issue off until year’s end instead of being obligated to comply with the original December 2008 implementation date. The board hasn’t removed the most offensive parts of the proposed standard, but it did promise to “redeliberate” it, meaning that something akin to Chinese water torture has replaced the agony that likely would have accompanied certainty.
