What is the difference between a judicial and an out-of-court forensic examination?
The judicial one takes place inside the lawsuit, either by court appointment or through the parties' own experts. The out-of-court one takes place before or outside the lawsuit: it produces pre-constituted evidence, underpins negotiations and settlements, and often avoids the dispute altogether, or wins it before it begins.
What is a pre-examination?
It is the examination and analysis of all the evidence the client believes they have, carried out before any litigation. The pre-examination establishes what evidence actually exists: whether it justifies filing a claim, whether it is worth attempting an out-of-court settlement, or whether the best course is not to act yet. In short, it is the assurance of taking the next step, whether litigation or negotiation, knowing there is evidence to prove what you intend to prove.
What is a private or administrative forensic examination?
It is a forensic examination carried out outside court proceedings, generally at a company's initiative, to investigate an internal matter: whether an employee complied with their duties, a suspicion of fraud, an incident. It is also a form of out-of-court forensic examination, a term that simply means "outside court proceedings". The result supports administrative decisions and, if the matter escalates, may ground a future claim.
What are questions to the expert and who drafts them?
Questions to the expert (quesitos) are the technical questions the court-appointed expert must answer. The parties draft them through their lawyers, ideally with the support of a party-appointed expert, within 15 days of service of the appointment (CPC, art. 465, §1); supplementary questions may still be put during the examination (art. 469). A well-built question steers the examination where the legal argument needs it; a generic question yields a generic answer.
Which deadlines in a forensic examination must never be missed?
Two are critical. The first: 15 days from service of the appointment order, to challenge the expert for disqualification or bias, nominate a party-appointed expert and submit questions to the expert (CPC, art. 465, §1). The second: a common period of 15 days after notice that the report has been filed, for the party's submission and for the party-appointed expert's opinion (art. 477, §1). Once the first window is lost, the examination proceeds without technical direction from the party; once the second is lost, the report tends to harden without any technical challenge.
What is a dissenting technical opinion?
It is the document in which the party-appointed expert analyses the official report and shows, with reasons, where the method, the examinations or the conclusions do not stand up: unsuitable tooling, a weak chain of custody, a question answered incompletely, a conclusion the data do not support. Filed within the period of CPC, art. 477, §1, it forces a technical debate: the expert must clarify the disputed points, and the court then decides in the light of two reasoned readings rather than only one.
Is the judge bound to follow the expert's report?
No. The CPC (art. 479) requires the judge to assess the expert evidence stating the reasons behind their conviction, taking into account the method used by the expert, and allows a decision that departs from the report. That is precisely why a well-reasoned technical opinion matters: it gives the court the rational basis not to follow a flawed report.
The official report came out with an error. What can still be done?
The procedure offers a ladder of responses: a request for clarifications from the expert (art. 477, §2), a dissenting technical opinion within the statutory period, examination of the expert at the hearing (§3) and, where the matter remains insufficiently clarified, an application for a second forensic examination (art. 480). Each rung demands precise technical reasoning: pointing out the right error, in the right way, is the work of a party-appointed expert, not of intuition.
Can I use a technical opinion to negotiate without going to court?
Yes, and it is one of the smartest uses of forensic work: an out-of-court opinion demonstrates the facts technically and shifts the balance of a negotiation. If no settlement follows, the work has already prepared the ground for litigation.
How do the fees work?
In retained work (party-appointed expert work, technical opinion, out-of-court forensic examination), the proposal is drawn up case by case: a fixed fee or an hourly technical rate, with the scope agreed in writing before the work begins. On a court appointment, the expert submits a proposal, the parties comment and the court fixes the amount, under the procedure of CPC, art. 465; the party-appointed expert is paid by the party that nominates them.
I missed the deadline to nominate a party-appointed expert. What now?
Not everything is lost: even outside the ideal moment, a technical opinion can ground submissions on the report, support appeals and assist counsel in the following phases. The earlier the technical expert comes in, the more options there are.
