THE QUERY PROJECT - European Commission - Europa

Germany
Wolfgang Hugemann,
wolfgang@hugemann.de
Qualification
A university degree, either in mechanical engineering or physics
(or comparable faculties) is a prerequisite for an officially
certified reconstructionist. It takes about 5 years to get the
university degree. A degree from universities for applied science
(Fachhochschulen) is also accepted, this normally taking 3½ years
to get. Furthermore, the certified reconstructionist must have
been working in this field for at least 3 years. This may be lowered
to 2 years where the special training in this area has been part if
his studies. The same holds if he proves he has had an additional
2 years of work in the production, repair or technical check of
vehicles.
Additionally, he must have driver’s licences for all kinds of
vehicles, i.e. passenger cars, motorcycles and HGVs. (In practice,
this is not taken very seriously.)
Certification
Experts in most fields are certified by the Chamber of Commerce
(and Industry) responsible for the area where he lives. (In some
working fields – excluding accident reconstruction – the Chamber
of Crafts is allowed to certify experts.) This stems from a former
time when being a certified expert was a part-time job, and was in
fact an obligation that the society called for. The Chambers have
an interest in guaranteeing quality in commerce and industry,
and thus they took responsibility for the recruiting of qualified
experts aiding jurisdiction in this respect. This is still the kind of
certification most accepted in Germany.
During recent years, private organisations have made attempts
to establish an ISO 9000 compatible certification. These attempts
have failed so far as the courts are solely founded on experts
certified by the well-established system are concerned. This is
partially due to German legislation which obliges the court to
prefer experts certified by the Chambers of Commerce.
In order to get the official certification one has to pass an
examination that consists of three parts (for reconstructionists):
a handful of written expert opinions which are examined by the
commission, a written test and an oral exam. The commission
mainly consists of three sound experts from the fields of reconstruction,
jurisdiction and vehicle technology. The chairman of
the commission is a reconstructionist, but the other two pose
questions independently, both in written and oral form.
Having passed this examination, the newborn expert receives
a special stamp that he has to decorate his written opinions with.
He has to give an oath that he will always give unbiased testimony
to the best of his ability. The certification used to be lifelong, but
nowadays most Chambers of Commerce restrict it to temporary
admissions that have to be renewed every five years. The handling
differs in detail as the Chambers of Commerce are local organisations
and overall co-ordination is somewhat informal.
Position in court
In most cases the reconstructionist is hired by the court, not
by one of the litigant parties, and there is therefore only one joint
expert in the trial. The proof by expert opinion is one of the five
Co u n t R y R E P o R t S
basic means of proof, both in civil litigation and public prosecution.
In civil litigation, expert testimony is normally given solely
in written form. Additional questions by the litigant parties are
posed in written form and also answered that way. A (final) oral
examination of the expert happens in about 5% of all cases.
Besides that, a litigant party or an accused may directly hire an
expert to give a written opinion. The outcome of this may be kept
secret; there is no obligation to reveal negative results to one’s
opponents. But in cases where the written opinion is handed out
to the opponents, it has to be complete, and cannot be restricted
to just the positive parts.
Private expert opinion is most often consulted during the preparation
of a possible trial or appeal, in order to gather ammunition
or in order to calculate the process risk more accurately. Besides
this, experts may be asked to check the written testimony of the
expert hired by the court. But due to the strong position of the
court’s expert it is rather difficult to convince the court otherwise,
and the position of the private expert is rather weak, even if he is
officially certified.Like a normal witness, the expert may be asked
to certify his testimony by oath (though this rarely happens). The
officially certified expert may then refer to the general oath he
has given at the Chamber of Commerce.
working conditions
Most reconstructionists work as independents in small offices,
usually consisting only the expert himself, a secretary and (possibly)
a technical assistant. An office uniting a handful of reconstructionists
is already considered to be one of the “bigs”. An exception
is DEKRA Ltd, employing about 150 full-time reconstructionists.
These are not officially certified but are generally accepted in
court.
The payment of reconstructionists is settled by law and is 75 €
per hour at the moment. For a private expert opinion, an hourly
charge may be settled freely and normally lies in the range of
100 – 130 €. In civil litigation, the litigant parties have to pay an
advance on costs that lies in the range of 1000 – 2500 €, depending
on the complexity of the case (as the judge sees it...). This
advance normally gives the “anchor” for the final bill. The amount
is not directly tied to the claim, but the judge will tend to foresee
higher expert costs in case of a large claim. Practically speaking,
expert testimony is most often a mixed calculation: there are cases
in which one makes good money and they finance those in which
one makes poor money.
It is comparatively easy to initiate a lawsuit in Germany; there
are neither restrictions on the minimum account to claim nor on
arbitration to pass in advance. Fault is generally divided between
the “participants” of an accident and as a consequence, each of
them has to come up for parts of the repair costs on his own. This
situation breeds lots of lawsuits concerning traffic accidents – and
legal insurance does the best to light that fire higher. Therefore,
reconstructionists are not in fear of running out of money in the
future.
working fields
Within the field of vehicular accident reconstruction there is
now further specialisation. The certified expert is obliged to accept
any case falling into the field he is certified in. This includes: vehicular
accidents, technical proof of insurance fraud, biomechanical
loading during impact (in regard to whiplash injury), insecure