Regulators and shareholders generally oppose any restriction on clients' rights to sue their auditors, believing that such restrictions would impair reporting quality. However, the evidence suggests that the opposition to limitation of liability agreements (LLAs) between clients and auditors is likely unwarranted. Specifically, the evidence indicates that LLAs are beneficial to clients by lowering their audit fees. More importantly, we find no evidence that they impair financial reporting quality in general. Hence, the extant contracts limiting clients' rights to sue their auditors appear to benefit auditors and their clients without any apparent detriment to the quality of financial reporting.

中文翻译：

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现有条款限制审计师责任对审计费用和整体报告质量的影响

监管机构和股东通常反对对客户起诉其审计师权利的任何限制，认为这些限制会损害报告质量。但是，有证据表明，客户与审计师之间反对责任限制协议（LLA）的反对很可能没有根据。具体而言，证据表明，LLA通过降低其审计费用对客户有利。更重要的是，我们发现没有证据表明它们总体上会损害财务报告的质量。因此，限制客户起诉其审计师权利的现存合同似乎使审计师及其客户受益，而对财务报告的质量没有任何明显的损害。