Big Four exposed to negligence claims

The four largest audit firms –PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernest & Young, KPMG and Deloitte- have pleaded for a limit of their liability towards companies (their clients). At this moment auditors are fully responsible for the disadvantage they can cause to a company. And because of the present economic crisis the Big Four have to deal with more lawsuits against them these days. Especially the investors of the companies are trying to regain money they lost by investing in the company and also the liquidators are trying to win back money because they can use it to pay off the debts of the company that went bankrupt. A major lawsuit could result in the bankruptcy of one of the Four audit firms, so that’s why the Big Four want this law to be changed.
I think on one side the companies that are being audited by one of these four firms may not experience a lot of damage of the audit. But on the other side I think it may not result in a failure of one of the Big Four because auditing is important to banish fraud, mistakes,… So maybe they have to make a law that gives the Big Four a certain liability, but not that excessive that they collapse.
http://www.accountancymagazine.com/croner/jsp/Editorial.do?channelId=-305535&contentId=1362105&Failed_Reason=Session+not+found&Failed_Page=%2fjsp%2fEditorial.do&BV_UseBVCookie=No