Forensic Accountant & Business Valuation Expert for West Virginia Matters

Working With Out-of-State Counsel

Joey Friedman, CPA, P.A. is a litigation-focused forensic accounting and business valuation firm engaged by counsel in West Virginia matters. The firm is based in Florida and works nationwide, handling records-based analysis remotely and traveling for deposition and trial testimony as a matter requires. Mr. Friedman has testified in state, federal and foreign courts, for plaintiffs and defendants, in civil, criminal and marital proceedings. The firm does not prepare income tax returns and does not provide tax planning services.

Divorce in West Virginia is heard in the Family Court. Federal matters are heard in the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia. Mr. Friedman is regularly engaged in matters in states across the United States, as well as in international matters, and the firm accepts West Virginia engagements in state and federal proceedings alike.

Retaining a forensic accountant from outside the state is common in financial disputes, and in some matters it is preferred:

• Conflict distance. An out-of-state expert is less likely to have prior or ongoing relationships with the parties, their businesses, their banks or their other advisors.
• Records-based work travels. Contribution and valuation analysis are performed on documents and data. The location of the analyst does not change what the records show.
• Independence is visible. Where the parties move in the same local professional circles, distance from those circles is easier to explain to a finder of fact.

The Three Things That Decide a West Virginia Case

Equal is the default, and only measured contribution moves it

Absent a valid agreement, the court presumes all marital property is divided equally. It may alter that distribution without regard to any attribution of fault, after considering four enumerated matters. Every one of the four is a question about contribution or economic effect, and every one of them can be quantified.

That shapes the case from the outset. An argument for an unequal division is not made by characterising the other party; it is made by showing what each side actually put in, what each gave up, and what was taken out. A party who wants more than half has to build the arithmetic for it — and a party defending the equal split does so by testing that arithmetic rather than by answering a narrative.

One item inside the first factor is easy to miss and often decisive: monetary contribution expressly includes funds which are separate property. Separate money put into the acquisition, preservation, maintenance or increase in value of marital property is a recognised contribution, which makes it worth tracing rather than writing off.

Work done for nothing, or for too little, is a named category

Non-monetary contribution is listed in detail, and the list goes well past the obvious. Alongside homemaker and child care services it names labour performed without compensation, or for less than adequate compensation, in a family business or other business entity in which one or both parties has an interest, labour spent maintaining or improving tangible marital property, and labour performed in the management or investment of marital assets.

The phrase “less than adequate compensation” is an invitation to a reasonable-compensation analysis, which is standard valuation work. Where one spouse worked in the family company for years at a token salary, or for none, the size of that contribution is measurable: what the role was, what the market rate for it would have been, over what period, and what the business retained as a result. The same applies to a spouse who managed the investments or ran the rental portfolio without pay.

This also cuts both ways, and it is worth knowing before the other side raises it. A business owner who paid a spouse a token wage has usually also been reporting it that way, so the payroll records, tax returns and general ledger tend to establish the claim rather than defeat it.

Careers given up and careers built are part of the division

The third factor asks the extent to which each party spent the marriage in a way that limited or decreased their own income-earning ability or increased the other party’s — expressly including direct or indirect contributions to the other party’s education or training, and foregoing employment or income-earning activity by agreement or at the other party’s insistence.

That is a lost-earning-capacity calculation and an enhanced-earnings calculation, sitting inside a property statute. Both are quantifiable: the career path actually followed against the one interrupted, the cost and timing of the other spouse’s training and what it did to their earnings, and the period over which the arrangement held. These are among the largest numbers available in many West Virginia cases and among the most frequently left unquantified, because they describe things that did not happen and therefore leave no single document behind.

The fourth factor, dissipation, carries an express limit: apart from the economic consequences of conduct, fault and marital misconduct are not considered. As in the contribution factors, the route in is the figure, not the behaviour.

Personal versus enterprise goodwill

Where a business depends on one individual, part of its value may not transfer to a new owner. The firm calculates and separates the transferable value from the non-transferable value and documents the basis for each. This is a financial calculation, not a legal determination — how that split is treated is a matter for the court under West Virginia law.

Forensic Accounting and Litigation Support

Reasonable-Compensation Analysis

Measuring what uncompensated or under-compensated work in a family business was actually worth — the role performed, the market rate for it, the period involved and the effect on what the business retained — which is the factor West Virginia names expressly.

Earning-Capacity and Enhanced-Earnings Calculations

Quantifying a career interrupted or foregone and the corresponding increase in the other party’s earning ability, including the cost and timing of education or training supported during the marriage.

Separate-Funds Tracing

Following separate money into the acquisition, preservation, maintenance or improvement of marital property, so a contribution the statute recognises is documented rather than assumed lost.

Dissipation Quantification

Establishing what was removed from the marital estate and when, separated from ordinary living and business expenditure, so the issue reaches the court as the economic consequence the statute permits it to consider.

Business Valuation Disputes

Valuation of closely held businesses for divorce, shareholder and partnership disputes and buyouts, including the normalization questions that decide most of these cases: owner compensation, discretionary expenses, related-party transactions and customer concentration.

Hidden Asset Tracing

Following money through business accounts, related entities and personal accounts to establish what exists and where it went — common in divorce and in partnership disputes where one side controlled the books.

Economic Damages and Lost Profits

Quantifying what was lost, on a method that survives cross-examination, and identifying where an opposing calculation departs from the records it claims to rest on.

Fraud and Embezzlement Investigations

Reconstruction of what happened from the underlying records — misappropriation, fictitious vendors, payroll schemes and diversion — documented so it can be presented to a court, a board or an insurer.

Rebuttal and Opposing-Expert Review

Review of an opposing expert’s report to identify method departures, unsupported assumptions and figures the underlying records do not support — in West Virginia, very often including whether a claim for an unequal division was actually quantified against the statutory factors or merely argued.

Deposition and Trial Testimony

Expert testimony in state, federal and foreign courts, in depositions, mediations, arbitrations including AAA, and jury and non-jury trials, for plaintiffs and defendants alike.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is marital property always split 50/50 in West Virginia?

An equal division is presumed, but the court may alter it after considering the four matters the statute lists — monetary contribution, non-monetary contribution, the effect each party had on the earning ability of themselves or the other, and dissipation. The presumption is the starting point, not a fixed outcome.

Does my spouse’s affair affect the property division?

Not as conduct. The court may alter the equal division without regard to any attribution of fault, and the statute states that apart from the economic consequences of conduct, fault and marital misconduct are not considered. Money that was spent or removed is a different question, and it is one the court can take into account.

I worked in the family business for years and was barely paid. Does that count?

Yes, and it is named expressly. Labour performed without compensation, or for less than adequate compensation, in a business in which one or both parties has an interest is a listed non-monetary contribution. What it was worth is measured against what the role would have cost at market rates over the period involved.

I gave up my career so we could move for my spouse’s job. Is that relevant?

Yes. The statute asks the extent to which each party limited or decreased their own income-earning ability or increased the other’s, including foregoing employment by agreement or at the other party’s insistence. It is a calculable figure rather than a general grievance.

I put money I owned before the marriage into our home. Is it gone?

Not necessarily. Monetary contribution to the acquisition, preservation, maintenance or increase in value of marital property expressly includes funds that are separate property. Whether that contribution can be recognised depends on whether it can be traced through the records.

I paid for my spouse’s degree. Does that come back?

Direct or indirect contributions to the education or training of the other party that increased their income-earning ability are among the listed considerations. The size of the effect is an earnings calculation.

Which court hears a divorce in West Virginia?

The Family Court.

Can a Florida-based expert work on a West Virginia case?

Yes, and it is common. The analysis is performed on documents and data, which does not depend on the analyst’s location, and the firm travels for deposition and trial testimony as a matter requires.

What records are needed to start?

For a contribution case, payroll records, tax returns and the general ledger covering the period of the unpaid or underpaid work, together with a description of the role actually performed. For an earning-capacity question, employment history, qualifications, and records of the education or training supported. For a separate-funds claim, the account statements showing the source and the path of the money into the asset. For a business, tax returns and financial statements, the general ledger in native form, bank and credit card statements and payroll records. Payroll detail is the item to ask for explicitly — a summary return will not show what a spouse was actually paid.

What credentials should a financial expert in a West Virginia matter hold?

For matters that may reach a hearing, the relevant considerations are accounting credentials, experience with the specific analysis at issue, and a record of testifying. Mr. Friedman is a CPA accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) by the AICPA and a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.

Discuss a West Virginia Matter

Joey Friedman is a CPA accredited in Business Valuation (ABV) by the AICPA, a member of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, with more than 25 years in accounting and forensic practice and an expert witness practice serving attorneys and litigants nationwide since 2014. To discuss whether the firm is the right fit for a matter — including scope, timing and whether an out-of-state expert suits the case — call 954-282-9615 or use the contact form. The firm accepts engagements in other states as well — see states served for how the analysis differs elsewhere.