Imagine that your client invested in a foreign partnership, and the “partner” ran off with the funds. Or maybe your client relied on the wrong offshore wealth adviser, or placed funds with the wrong trust company. In any such scenario, the client undoubtedly lost a lot of money at the hands of someone they trusted. This is a terrible situation, but a great case … if you can prove it. So how do you get crucial discovery out of that jurisdiction which isn’t a party to the Hague Convention? And how much will it cost to do so? These are daunting questions, but if you can find a jurisdictional hook and establish a right to an accounting, the entire burden might shift to the defendant.
Under Florida law, an accounting is a two-step process. Step one is to establish a right to an accounting, such as through a partnership or another relationship that gives rise to a fiduciary duty. Step two is for the party owing the duty to account. The ultimate purpose of the accounting is to determine whether the fiduciary has performed properly. Thus, a defendant cannot escape liability simply by remaining silent or testifying generally that funds were not misused.
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