Under the law of tort auditors can be sued for negligence if they breach a duty of care towards a third party who consequently suffers some form of loss.
The auditors' duty of care Their audit report is addressed to all shareholders. Auditors do not owe a duty of care to individual shareholders. A statutory right of shareholders to put questions to auditors may potentially widen that duty of care to each shareholder asking a question.
Auditors: Help shareholders and other stakeholders hold directors to account. Report to shareholders on the 'truth and fairness' of financial statements which must be prepared in ance with accounting standards and legal requirements. Help businesses maintain consistency and detect errors or fraud.
Auditors owe a duty of care to shareholders as a body. Their audit report is addressed to all shareholders. Auditors do not owe a duty of care to individual shareholders. A statutory right of shareholders to put questions to auditors may potentially widen that duty of care to each shareholder asking a question.
An auditor is an agent of the shareholders. He has to perform his professional duties. He should take reasonable care and skill in the performance of his duties. If he fails to do so, liability for negligence arises.
If you need an NDA, looking at templates online isn't a bad place to start, but ideally you should work with a lawyer who can write a simple NDA for you or tweak the one you have. You may be able to find someone in your community who can do it for a few hundred bucks.
disclosure agreement (NDA) is a legal agreement between two or more parties that outlines confidential information that the parties wish to share with one another for certain purposes, but wish to restrict access to by unauthorised third parties.
You do not need a lawyer to create and sign a non-disclosure agreement. However, if the information you are trying to protect is important enough to warrant an NDA, you may want to have the document reviewed by someone with legal expertise.
Five other key features must be included in your NDA to ensure it's legally binding, including a description of confidential information, obligations of the parties involved, any exclusions, the term of the agreement and consequences of a breach.
The key elements of Non-Disclosure Agreements: Identification of the parties. Definition of what is deemed to be confidential. The scope of the confidentiality obligation by the receiving party. The exclusions from confidential treatment. The term of the agreement.