Accountancy firms have woken up during the 1990s to the growth in forensic accountancy.

This has been fuelled by a more litigious environment in the UK and by more explicit regulation of particular industries such as financial services.

An unprecedented degree of specialisation and investment in forensic accountancy -- a range of work from fraud and corruption investigation to appearing as an expert witness in court -- has come in the wake of demand from the legal profession for high-quality evidence to present in court.While this means that virtually every accountancy firm of any size claims to be able to provide a partner for general forensic work, some firms now earn sufficient fee income from it to justify setting up specialist departments.Solicitors' firms such as Reading-based Boyes, Turner & Burrows keep lists of approved accountancy firms.

The firm commissions expert reports from accountants on losses from the interruption of a plaintiff's business, says partner, Adrian Desmond.

It also asks accountants for advice on structured settlement proposals.

The skills his firm needs 'are localised in only around ten large and small accountancy practices nationwide'.He says: 'A lot of accountancy practices describe themselves as general forensic accountants, but we need people who specialise in accident work.'Sheffield law firm Irwin Mitchell, a leading personal injury practice, also looks carefully at the experience of an accountancy firm before instructing it.

Partner Grahame Codd says: 'Lots of accountants have worked on personal injury cases, but we will look for extra specialisation on top of that.'He cites a recent case of a young man who had suffered a serious brain injury.

The victim is the heir to his family's farm.

Irwin Mitchell instructed an accountancy firm with long experience of advising farmers to project the future earnings and assets of the young man had he inherited the farm.KPMG partner David Eastwood says specialisation is the key to his firm's appeal to the solicitors who instruct it.

His forensic accountancy department of 100 people includes auditors, ex-policemen, former Inland Revenue and regulatory body investigators as well as support staff and researchers.One of KPMG's strengths is that it can offer junior staff a route up to partner level entirely within the forensic accountancy department.

This means the managers and assistants who do much of the legwork before a case comes to trial are not just audit staff drafted in on an ad hoc basis -- they specialise in forensic accountancy just as much as the nine partners in the department do.'We find a lot of that preparatory work is vital when you are standing up in the witness box [this is a job usually reserved for a partner].

I think our assistants and managers are stronger for being within our career structure.

In a smaller firm, the partners and support staff are often dabbling in forensic work -- but they do not have our experience or understanding of what the solicitors and the courts actually want,' said Mr Eastwood.Edward Ross-McNairn, head of the litigation support unit at mid-sized firm Chantrey Vellacott, says, on the other hand, the partner of a 'big six' firm can come unstuck in the witness box because he has not been involved in the preparation of the case.

And he says forensic accountancy is not about the resources that the huge firms can throw at a case.

He says: 'Litigation support is a personal service.

I have been up against 'big six' partners and beaten them.'Chantrey Vellacott, he says, can provide accountancy and technical back-up, but adds: 'There can only ever be one person in the witness box.'One name well-known to solicitors is Andrew Knight, of seven-partner Birmingham firm Bloomer Heaven.

He has concentrated mainly on cases involving company directors threatened with disqualification.

The tricks of the forensic accountant's trade, he says, are different from those of an auditor so there are dangers in handing forensic work for those who have not specialised in it.'For me, the key skill is writing credible and authoritative reports.

But in many firms, accountants do not write reports.

They produce accounts and spreadsheets only and lack the skill of constructing a reasoned argument with an introduction, a middle and an end,' he says.As with any aspect of accountancy it is impossible to obtain concrete figures on the size of the forensic accountancy market.

But those most closely involved in it say it is growing, and that view is supported by the eagerness of almost every accountancy firm to claim a share of it.Many firms could end up disappointed, however, as the evidence is that solicitors shop around for the best forensic accountants.As a spokesman for support group Action for the Victims of Medical Accidents says:'Solicitors have learned to specialise in our field, there is no reason why accountants should not specialise in theirs.'