I do not agree with Heartland’s decision that a loss contingency was not triggered since the loss is probable and material. If Heartland loses the lawsuits, the loss will have a huge impact to the financial statement and this information is useful for the decision-making of the investors or creditors. I believe both of the lawsuits’ damages and other legal fees could be reasonably estimated and accrued as we had a similar case, TJX Companies. Heartland hired the same law firm that defended TJX Companies and they could definitely assist on estimating the reasonable amount to accrue since they had already dealt with this matter before. The loss contingency also needs to disclose in financial
