Forensic Economic Examination: Cost and Timeframe in Ukraine

“How much will this cost and how long will it take?” is a question I hear at almost every first consultation. Let me be honest straight away: no conscientious expert will give you an exact figure or date before seeing the list of questions and the volume of documents. But it is entirely realistic to outline the benchmarks that a court, the parties and a private expert start from — and those benchmarks are precisely what help you plan a budget and factor in a pause in the proceedings without unpleasant surprises.

Let me fix the legal frame first. Forensic expert activity in Ukraine is governed by the Law of Ukraine “On Forensic Expert Activity”, while the procedure for appointing and conducting examinations is detailed in the Ministry of Justice’s specialised Instruction on the appointment and conduct of forensic examinations and expert studies (Order No. 53/5). Both state institutions and certified private experts rely on these acts — and that is where an understanding of what makes up the cost and the timeframe begins.

Why there is no fixed price list

A forensic economic examination is not a service you pick from a price table; it is research whose scope depends on the specific case. The final cost and timeframe are shaped by several factors, and until those factors are known, any “price in advance” will be either an inflated safety margin or an understated promise that will have to be revised. So the most sensible first step is not to ask “how much does it cost in general”, but to gather the materials and let the expert assess your particular situation.

What the cost depends on

The volume and order of the documents

This is the factor most often underestimated. An expert economist works not with a description of events but with primary records: contracts, delivery and tax invoices, acts, bank statements, cash documents, turnover-balance sheets, accounting registers. Examining a dozen transactions over a single quarter and examining an enterprise’s activity over three years are tasks of very different labour intensity. The larger the array and the worse it is organised, the more hours of work — and therefore the more money.

I will stress separately: it is not only the number of documents that matters, but their condition. A sorted, complete, legible package is processed quickly. A box of undescribed copies, missing the annexes to contracts and half the statements, first requires reconstructing the underlying logic — and that, too, is billable time.

The number and complexity of the questions

Each question in a court ruling (ukhvala) or an investigator’s resolution (postanova) is a separate research task with its own methodology. A single question — “is the amount of debt under the contract documentarily confirmed?” — is one volume of work. Ten questions spanning several periods, counterparties and types of transactions are fundamentally different. So already at the stage of framing the questions it is worth cutting the superfluous and merging the related: an overloaded list costs more and takes longer, often without any benefit to the case.

The need for a complex examination

A forensic economic examination covers several expert specialities under the Ministry of Justice classification, and the complexity depends on how many of them are involved:

• 11.1 — examination of accounting, tax-accounting and reporting documents;
• 11.2 — examination of documents on the economic activity of enterprises and organisations;
• 11.3 — examination of documents on financial and credit operations.

If a case requires conclusions across several specialities at once (for example, both accounting and credit operations), the scope of the research grows. And when answering the questions also calls for specialists of a different profile — say, a handwriting examination or a technical examination of documents — a complex examination (an examination involving several experts of different specialities) is appointed. This objectively increases both the cost and the timeframe, so such a need is better foreseen in advance rather than “topped up” in separate pieces.

A state institution or a private expert

Examinations are conducted both by state specialised institutions (the research institutes of forensic examinations within the Ministry of Justice system) and by certified private forensic experts entered in the Register of Certified Forensic Experts maintained by the Ministry of Justice. The procedure and grounds for payment differ, so this choice affects both the budget and the speed.

Criterion	State institution	Certified private expert
Basis for the work	Ruling / resolution on appointment	Ruling / resolution, or a contract with the client
Payment	Under established norms; in criminal cases appointed by an investigator or court — at the state’s expense	Contractual price, usually with an advance
Timeframe	Depends on the institution’s workload; a queue is possible	Usually more flexible, agreed individually
Range of specialities	Broad; several experts in one institution	Depends on the certification of the specific expert

There is no universally “cheaper” or “faster” option — it all depends on the type of proceedings, the urgency and the complexity. In criminal proceedings (in particular, in cases on economic crimes investigated by the Bureau of Economic Security (BEB — Byuro ekonomichnoyi bezpeky)), an examination appointed by the prosecution is usually carried out by a state institution at the state’s expense. The defence, an enterprise or an individual acting in their own interests, by contrast, more often turn to a private expert on a contractual basis.

How long an examination takes

The timeframe is governed by the same Instruction No. 53/5. It sets a gradation depending on the number of objects and the complexity of the questions — from a couple of weeks for straightforward studies to roughly up to 90 days for voluminous or especially complex ones. Beyond that term the examination may continue only with the consent of the body or person who appointed it, taking into account the real volume of materials.

It is important to understand from what moment this term is counted. It starts not from the date of the ruling but from the day all the necessary materials reach the expert. If documents are missing, the expert files a petition for them to be provided — and the time until a reply is received is, as a rule, not counted within the study’s term. In practice it is precisely these “top-ups” that stretch out the wait far more than the work on the conclusion itself.

The risk of staying the proceedings

This is worth a warning in advance. The procedural codes allow a court to stay (suspend) the proceedings for the duration of an examination. This means that waiting for the conclusion is not only the expert’s working time but an actual pause in the hearing: until the conclusion is ready, the case may not move at all. So the examination timeframe must be built into the case strategy, not treated as a technical trifle.

Who bears the costs

The general rule in commercial, civil and administrative proceedings is this: the costs of the examination are paid in advance by the party that petitioned for its appointment. This is a prepayment, not the final allocation. Based on the outcome of the case, the court allocates the court costs — which include the examination costs — and, as a rule, imposes them on the party that loses the dispute. In other words, the party that initiated and paid for the examination may, if successful, recover these funds from its opponent.

In criminal proceedings the logic is different: an examination appointed by an investigator, a prosecutor or a court is conducted at the state’s expense. At the same time, the defence has the right to engage an expert on its own, on a contractual basis and at its own expense — a separate instrument that does not depend on the prosecution’s position.

An expert study on commission

Outside the proceedings — for example, to assess the prospects of a dispute, to prepare for negotiations, or for an internal decision — a party may commission an expert study (ekspertne doslidzhennia) on a contractual basis. There is no court ruling here: the ground is a contract, and the price and term are agreed directly between the client and the expert. Such a conclusion helps you understand the picture before going to court; it acquires the full procedural status of evidence later, under the rules of the specific proceedings.

How to speed things up and not overpay

The main lever for saving time and money is in the client’s hands even before the examination is appointed. Here is what actually works.

1. Submit the full package of documents at once. This is the single most effective way to speed things up. Every expert petition for additional information means pauses measured in weeks. Gather the contracts with all their annexes, the complete statements for the relevant periods, the accounting registers — and hand them over together.
2. Organise and describe the materials. A register of documents, copies laid out by episode, and legible scans all cut the time spent “sorting the box” — time you also pay for.
3. Refine the questions. Discuss the list of questions with the expert or your lawyer before filing the petition. Clear, consistent, non-duplicated questions produce a clear conclusion faster and more cheaply.
4. Determine the need for a complex examination in advance. If it is obvious that a handwriting or technical study will also be required, provide for it from the outset rather than in separate steps.
5. Clarify the approximate term and cost before the start. After reviewing the scope, a conscientious expert will give you a benchmark — normal practice that protects both sides.

Typical mistakes that make a study more expensive

• A fragmentary package submitted on the assumption that “the expert will somehow calculate it”: without the primary data a calculation is impossible — it would be guesswork, not research.
• An overloaded list of dozens of questions “just in case” — you pay for time spent on things that do not advance your position.
• Questions of a legal nature (about guilt, intent, qualification) — these are outside the competence of an expert economist, who examines documents and figures, not persons and circumstances.
• Expecting an instant result without accounting for a possible stay of the proceedings.

Examples of situations

To make the benchmarks tangible, here are generalised types of tasks (not tied to any specific case):

• One question, a narrow period, orderly documents — for example, confirming the amount of debt under a single contract. This is the easiest and fastest format.
• Several questions, several counterparties, several periods — for example, examining a series of transactions over a year, including the conformity of the tax accounting with the requirements of the Tax Code. Scope and timeframe grow substantially.
• A complex task across several specialities — where, alongside the accounting, financial and credit operations must also be examined, and an expert of a different profile engaged. This is the upper limit both in cost and in time.

A short checklist before appointment

• The full package of primary documents, with annexes, has been gathered.
• The materials are organised and accompanied by a register.
• The questions are agreed, with the superfluous and the legal-in-nature ones filtered out.
• It has been determined whether a complex examination is needed.
• It is clear who advances the costs and how they will be allocated by the outcome.
• A possible pause caused by a stay of the proceedings is built into the case strategy.

If you are at the stage of planning the budget and timeframe — for example, looking for a forensic expert economist in Kyiv for a particular case — the most useful thing is to bring the documents you have and the list of questions to a consultation. After reviewing the scope, one can give a realistic benchmark for cost and timeframe and suggest how to save time without compromising the quality of the conclusion.