Litigation Services
Answer: In order to determine Marie’s obligation, it is necessary to understand the nature of her role. If she is acting as an appraiser, her litigation services are part of appraisal practice and the ethics and competency requirements of USPAP apply. Marie must comply, at a minimum, with the portions of USPAP that apply generally to appraisal practice. These include the DEFINITIONS, PREAMBLE, the Conduct, Management, and Confidentiality sections of the ETHICS RULE, the COMPETENCY RULE, the JURISDICTIONAL EXCEPTION RULE and the SUPPLEMENTAL STANDARDS RULE. As an appraiser, Marie cannot act as an advocate for any party or issue.
If Marie’s services include providing an opinion of value, she must comply with the appropriate appraisal standards (STANDARDS 1 and 2, 7 and 8, or 9 and 10). If Marie’s services include providing an opinion about the quality of another appraiser’s work, the appraisal review requirements of STANDARD 3 apply. If the service includes providing analysis, recommendation, or an opinion to solve a real property problem where an opinion of value is a component of the analysis leading to the assignment results, then Marie must adhere to the appraisal consulting requirements of STANDARDS 4 and 5.
On the other hand, if Marie provides litigation services as an advocate, then she is providing a valuation service outside of appraisal practice. When performing services outside of appraisal practice, Marie can act as an advocate and accept contingent compensation. The only USPAP obligation is that she not misrepresent her role. She must use care to distinguish her role from other roles that would carry an expectation of being impartial, objective, and independent, i.e., acting as an appraiser.
Marie may provide litigation services by either acting as an appraiser or acting as an advocate for the client’s cause; however, she must not perform both roles in the same case.