In De Guere v. Universal City Studios, Inc. (1997) 56 Cal.App.4th 482, the Court examined Code of Civil Procedure section 639, the statute which authorizes the appointment of a referee for an accounting. Code of Civil Procedure section 639 provides: "(a) When the parties do not consent, the court may, upon written motion of any party, or of its own motion, appoint a referee in the following cases . . . : (1) When the trial of an issue of fact requires the examination of a long account on either side; in which case the referees may be directed to hear and decide the whole issue, or report upon any specific question of fact involved therein. (2) When the taking of an account is necessary for the information of the court before judgment, or for carrying a judgment or order into effect." In particular, Division Four addressed the issue of whether the statute violates our state constitution's prohibition against delegation of judicial power. (See Cal. Const., art. VI, 22.) In examining this issue, Division Four provided an excellent review of the manner in which the statute for an accounting referee is ordinarily employed. The following is Division Four's discussion. "The reference is allowed because a trained accountant is generally better able to efficiently and inexpensively examine a 'long account' than a trial court judge is able to do through adversarial court proceedings. The tension in this area is over how much latitude the accountant referee may exercise in making factual determinations. . . . The scope of the reference is set by the constitutional limitations on delegation of judicial power to a referee. "To do a proper examination of a long account, a referee needs to know two things -- each of which is within the proper ambit of his or her authority. First, the referee must know the proper accounting methodology to be applied. Second, the referee must have the accounting records at issue. The parties must obtain the necessary records through discovery to enable the referee to perform the examination. "As to the first, we expect that in the ordinary case the referee will look to established and accepted standards of accounting principles, such as those prepared by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. But in particular industries, other standards may apply. In such cases, the referee must look to industry custom and practice." (De Guere, supra, 56 Cal.App.4th at p. 499, fn. omitted.)