The precise status of comfort letters before national courts is uncertain.

This is because the auditor needs evidence that can be related to comfort letter procedures.

It will often seek a comfort letter to that effect from the offeror's financial adviser.

As part of the typical process an investment bank would undergo, it would get a comfort letter from an accountant.

"Unless they knew the comfort letter was erroneous, it's hard to argue they are liable," he said.

A comfort letter is a document prepared by an accounting firm assuring the financial soundness or backing of a company.

"The court makes it pretty clear that comfort letters are worthless, that you can rely only on audited financial statements."

Howells sent back a comforting letter.

In any event, it is still the wiser course for a comfort letter expressly to exclude legal liability if such is the intention.

The issue of a comfort letter by the Commission ensures continued immunity from fines, since the agreement remains a notified agreement.

Comfort letters are often used because the seller is unable or unwilling to provide a guarantee on a certain outcome, such as the performance of a security.

However, I now wrote a comforting letter to Mrs. Micawber, in our joint names, and we both signed it.

The tools are a model comfort letter and a model settlement agreement (an administrative order on consent or "AOC").

Subsequently, a "bring-down" letter is used to re-verify, as of a later date, that the original comfort letter is still valid.

Travelers, the big insurance company, had issued a so-called comfort letter advising Meritor that its policy was to make sure its subsidiaries fulfilled their obligations.

Tahir, Asad and I had received comforting letters from our families through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Comfort letters are also sometimes provided by those involved in evaluating a company's assets, for instance, in the case of oil and gas companies, third-party reserve engineering firms.

After his death, Lady Drury received a comforting letter from the Queen, in which the Queen referred to her as 'my Bess'.

The Will Levington Comfort Letters (2 volumes, 1920-21) deal with theosophical subjects, and influenced among others Alice Bailey.

Comfort letters are typically signed prior to the pricing decision or closing date for a given public offering or other transaction, as a part of the due diligence process.

"We've made it clear that the press release was consistent with the Arthur Andersen comfort letter and the assurances we were given by the company," Mr. Walton said.

The comfort letter can be issued by a CPA declaring no indication of false or misleading information in the financial statements and that the company's prospectus follows GAAP.

The existence of a comfort letter would therefore oblige the national court at least to consult the Commission and ultimately to stay proceedings or take interim measures while the Commission granted an exemption.

It is not appropriate for information from confidential comfort letters and, in particular, information contained in long-form reports, to be quoted in investment advertisements and other public documents without our express consent.

The opinion said, for example, that it was no longer enough for banks to rely on so-called comfort letters from companies' accounting firms stating that unaudited financial statements, such as quarterly results, were accurate.