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An expert is a person appointed by the court or the parties in order to provide his expertise on a certain subject during court proceedings. Their duty is to the court even if the parties have appointed the expert.

Usually, national laws lay down the duties and responsibilities of experts. Most countries stipulate requirements (education, training and/or certification) for recognition as an expert in court proceedings. Currently, there is no agreement between the Member States on the requirements for (judicial) experts and national nomenclatures significantly differ from one another.

There are many types of experts:

An expert witness will be asked to interpret facts and/or give an opinion based on their expertise in technical matters or on their experience so as to clarify the parties’ arguments;
A technical expert will be asked to give their opinion on technical or scientific issues;
A legal expert may be consulted about rules, practices and rights applicable to foreign law;
Other experts.

The national factsheets on experts and expertise provide information about existing national lists and registers of experts, requirements experts have to adhere to, remuneration and liability of experts, as well as information about the conduct of expert proceedings.

These national factsheets have been compiled by the European Expert and Expertise Institute (EEEI) within the framework of the Find an Expert project, funded under the Justice Programme of the European Commission.

Last update: 09/04/2020

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Find an expert