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Acting as Single Joint Expert

A Single Joint Expert is an expert instructed to prepare a report for the court on behalf of two or more of the parties (including the claimant) to the proceedings.

When two parties fail to agree over money, the parties (or in some cases the Court) may decide to appoint an independent expert to prepare a report for the Court on the issue or amount in dispute. This expert is known as the Single Joint Expert (SJE). The SJE is often used in matrimonial cases, for example where one of the significant assets in divorce dispute is a business, but the parties cannot agree on the value of that business.

The SJE differs from other business valuers in that they do not act for either party. Their duty is to the Court, and they are appointed to be impartial, independent and work in a way that is completely open and transparent to all parties.

As part of our Corporate Finance offering Scrutton Bland is able to offer a Single Joint Expert (SJE) service to help resolve these disputes and improve the efficiency of difficult legal proceedings. These can include:

An accurate valuation of a business or business assets which have been called into question as part of divorce proceedings
An impartial valuation of a business in order to proceed with a business acquisition or merger
An independent valuation of a person’s shareholding in a business where there is a dispute between shareholders or a partner is intending to exit the business

In these problematic situations we recognise that emotions often run high. Each party has their own agenda and wants to reach their own desired outcome. Our job as the SJE is to arrive at a fair, realistic and impartial valuation of the assets in question and provide the Court with a clear and concise report which explains:

Who has been communicated with, and when this happened
The internal and external information that has been collated and used
How that information has been employed by the SJE
The methodology and processes used to calculate the valuation
Any alternative valuation methods which have been rejected, and why
An independent valuation of the assets in question

Get in touch

Our SJE service is part of our Corporate Finance offering, headed up by Luke Morris with support from Andrew Strickland. Both are highly experienced in determining business and shareholder valuation, and both have many decades involvement in managing intricate negotiations to help individuals to bring matters to a satisfactory conclusion.