Accounting rule adjustments rarely elicit even a yawn from the legal community.
But changes proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board that would force public companies to disclose more about the risks of litigation have caused a howl of protest among general counsel and corporate and defense lawyers.
Under the revised rules for FASB Statement No. 5, the threshold for reporting the potential loss from a lawsuit would be lowered from 'probable' to anything but 'remote.' Public companies would also have to estimate just how much legal threats might cost and the likely outcome.






