PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s mix-up at the Oscars could carry a high cost if jurors arrive at a malpractice trial next week suspecting the global accounting firm is error-prone, Bloomberg News reported on Friday. Until a PwC accountant handed Warren Beatty the wrong envelope for the Best Picture award, its lawyers only had to worry about adversary MF Global Holdings, Ltd. Now, PwC’s attorneys will also be concerned that jurors who watched the Feb. 26 awards ceremony will begin the trial doubting the firm’s expertise, jury consultants said. That’s particularly worrisome in a case where New York-based PwC is accused of contributing to the 2011 collapse of MF Global, the N.Y. brokerage formerly run by Jon Corzine. MF Global is seeking as much as $3 billion in a trial that will feature Corzine’s testimony about events leading up to the firm’s failure. "The MF Global meltdown is entirely unrelated to what happened at the Oscars," said Leticia Ostler, a jury consultant in San Diego. Yet jurors may ask "what’s to say they’re not making the same mistake in other areas?"
