THE QUERY PROJECT - European Commission - Europa

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Italy Cinzia Cardigno, dr. ing. cinzia.cardigno@tin.it Qualification At present, officially, there aren’t particular prerequisites to be a reconstructionist. Usually the reconstructionist has a university degree in engineering (5 years of studies to have the title of Doctor in Engineering). Nevertheless, in same cases the reconstructionist has only a high-school diploma in a technical field, either mechanical (perito industriale) or building (geometra). No special training is required to work in this area. In 2001 there was a pronunciation of the Court of Pordenone that has enacted that only engineers and graduated with specialisation in mechanical or naval field, who are enrolled to a professional bulletin-board, can work as a reconstructionist. Certification It is necessary to pass a state examination to ask to be enrolled to the bulletin-board of the engineers. In every chief town there is a special organism (the so-called Ordine degli Ingegneri), an emanation of the Ministry of Justice, that decides whether the engineer can be enrolled to the bulletin-board. The Ordine degli Ingegneri checks ifs the affiliate respects the professional etiquette. According to Law, in every court there is a bulletin-board of experts, for each category. Prerequisites to be registered to the bulletin-board of a court should be specific technical expertise, to be part of a professional bulletin-board and an upright moral behaviour. In theory the judge or the prosecutor should hire an expert belonging to the court bulletin-board (but this rule is not strictly observed as the judge and the prosecutor can freely hire the expert with whom they have a fiduciary relationship). Position in court The reconstructionist can be hired by the public prosecutor in the phase of preliminary investigations and/or by the court both in civil litigation and criminal procedure. In the phase of preliminary investigations the prosecutor hires an expert who, of routine, has the possibility to inspect at sight the involved vehicles and the accident scene with, in some cases, still visible traces. Only rarely the reconstructionist is called by the prosecutor to assist the police at the accident scene. At the end of his/her investigations the expert deposits a written report. After some years the expert could be called, like a “witness”, to explain to the court the conclusions of his/her report. In criminal procedures, expert testimony is given first in written form and later orally. In civil litigation, expert testimony is normally given solely in written form. The litigant parties can ask the judge to call the expert again to specify his/her own conclusions or to give new explanations. Usually these new questions are posed in written form and answered that way too. In few cases the expert can be called to be submitted to a last oral examination. Besides that, a litigant party or an accused or injured party may directly hire an expert to have a technical opinion. The result of the expert evidence may be kept secret; there is no obligation to reveal negative results to one’s opponents. But, unfortunately, there are no ethical rules that force the expert to say what really Co u n t R y R E P o R t S happened without hiding negative aspects and without forcing, even if only partially, interpretation of objective elements. Sometimes the private expert opinion is asked during the preparation of a trial, to decide the best defence, or before start a civil litigation to verify which are the process risks. Experts may be asked to check the written testimony of the expert hired by the prosecutor or by the court. Even though the court’s expert or the prosecutor’s expert has a stronger position than the private expert, it is possible to convince the court otherwise (but obviously it is necessary to have very good and provable reasons), specially in the criminal procedure where the expert can directly expose his/her own reasons to the judge. More complex is to convince the court otherwise in civil litigation (but normally it depends on the judge) where the testimony is written. Like a normal witness, the expert may be asked to certify his/her testimony by oath. However the oath concerns only the objective data and not the expert evaluations. working conditions Normally, the reconstructionist works as a free lance in small office. In some cases he/she is supported by a technical assistant and/or by a secretary. It is not so rare that a reconstructionist, specially if he is an engineer, works as an expert in many other different fields (not concerning vehicles). The reconstructionists’ fare, when working for court and prosecutor, is settled by law. The unit of work is called “vacazione” and it corresponds to 2 hours. At present the fare is 14.68 € for the first vacazione and 8.15 € for each following vacazione. Obviously, in order to obtain a proper income, reconstructionist needs to declare, at the end of his/her work, that his/her fee is equivalent to a large amount of vacazioni (for example a fee of about 170 vacazioni, the equivalent of 340 hours, corresponding to about 1400 €). In any case the prosecutor or the judge can decide to pay the expert less than demanded by the expert. For a private expert opinion, the fee normally lies in the range of 1000 – 2000 € (depending on the complexity of the task). In civil litigation, normally the litigant parties have to pay an advance on costs (the amount of the deposit is settled by the judge). Also in this case the expert, at the end of his work, can ask for a fee that the judge will not necessarily approve. In civil litigation the fee normally lies in the range of 800 – 1700 € (depending on the complexity of the task). working fields At the moment each expert can work in every field without distinction, i.e. vehicular accidents, technical proof of insurance fraud, biomechanical loading during impact (in regard to whiplash injury), insecure loads, defective traffic surveying devices, nullification of sale because of (claimed) technical deficiencies, technical examination of vehicles after accidents. In theory the evaluation of repair costs is now working field of another kind of expert (periti assicurativi, or insurance expert). To evaluate repair costs for insurance company it is necessary to pass an exam and to be enrolled to the insurance experts roll (an official list). Associations, institutions, activities At the moment there is nothing of interest in Italy concerning accident reconstruction. 1
Co u n t R y R E P o R t S The only way to have education seems to be to attend seminars and conferences organised by European associations or organisations. However AREC Conference is usually attended only by a few Italian reconstructionists and only a few reconstructionists are associated to European associations. There aren’t publications regarding accident reconstruction like, for example, the German journal Verkehrsunfall und Fahrzeugtechnik. There is no literature concerning accident reconstruction that could be compared to the European literature. latvia State Forensic Science Bureau oskars.irbitis@vteb.gov.lv Qualification A university degree or second level professional university degree, in technical engineering is a prerequisite for an officially certified reconstructionist. It takes about 4 years to get the university degree. Furthermore, the certified reconstructionist must have working experience in this field for at least 1 year. Reconstructionist also needs some skills in work with computer and knowledge of foreign language (Russian, English, or German). Additionally, the driver’s licence for passenger cars is required. Certification In Latvia there is only one institution (State Forensic Science Bureau) that certifies auto technical experts in four specialities (Investigation of vehicle technical condition, Investigation of vehicle collusion mechanism, Investigation of vehicle collusion mechanism with pedestrian). The State Forensic Science Bureau has an interest in guaranteeing quality of experts work, and thus they took responsibility for the recruiting and practise of qualified experts. Currently working group is drawing up a new act that will establish rules of expert’s certification. In order to get the official certification one has to pass an examination that consists of two parts (for reconstructionists): at least 5 of expert written opinions that are examined by the commission and oral exam. The commission consists of 5 certified experts. The structure of commission is approved by Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia The chairman of the commission can invite representative from police, prosecutor’s office, court and other science institutions. Having passed this examination, the newborn expert receives the right for the signature. He has to give an oath that he will always give unbiased testimony to the best of his ability. The certification has to be renewed every five years. Position in court The State Forensic Science Bureau that is connected with law institutions hires the forensic expert. The forensic experts have a duty to take part in court process. In some cases forensics experts are invited to the court to give answers for their conclusion, that’s needed when court have something unclear about expert conclusion. If the court wants to make expertise in court, then questions are posed in written form and also answered the same way. Private expert opinion is 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 common witness, the forensic expert is asked to certify his testimony by oath.
Page 1 and 2: THE QUERY PROJECT Developing Guidel
Page 3 and 4: I M P R I n t Part financed by the
Page 5 and 6: Co n t E n t S Contents Preface . .
Page 7 and 8: P R E fAC E Preface Road accidents
Page 9 and 10: t h E P R o P o S A l I Accident Sc
Page 12 and 13: . The QUERY Project - Developing Gu
Page 14 and 15: .1. ThE RECONSTRUCTIONIST wIThIN Th
Page 16 and 17: . Progression . .1 QUERY PhASE I .
Page 18 and 19: . . . Conference QUERY Phase II, Br
Page 20 and 21: . The Research Results of the QUERY
Page 22 and 23: 01.01.1999, the room for argumentat
Page 24 and 25: Professional association such as CE
Page 26 and 27: • Bradáč A. and Col.: Expert St
Page 28 and 29: The supervision of the certificate
Page 30 and 31: There is in addition to that a bunc
Page 32 and 33: annual reports and preliminary repo
Page 34 and 35: United kingdom Richard Lambourn rla
Page 36 and 37: Germany Wolfgang Hugemann, wolfgang
Page 38 and 39: in order to estimate the possibilit
Page 40 and 41: working conditions The labour legis
Page 44 and 45: working conditions The forensic exp
Page 46 and 47: • to complement its analysis, if
Page 48 and 49: Poland Jan Unarski junarski@ies.kra
Page 50 and 51: working conditions Practicalities n
Page 52 and 53: values. Point values are harmonised
Page 54 and 55: Spain Juan Carlos Iribarren Vera Ce
Page 56 and 57: one expert opinion in a trial. If t
Page 58 and 59: While in some countries, more than
Page 60 and 61: 26) In principle, would you agree t
Page 62 and 63: 36) How many years does university
Page 64 and 65: 43) If you mentioned professional o
Page 66 and 67: 53) How many years' work experience
Page 68 and 69: a) effect of certification - privat
Page 70 and 71: 73 & 74) What is the hourly rate of
Page 72 and 73: In the same countries as above, as
Page 74 and 75: When asked how frequently a reconst
Page 76 and 77: . .6. Confidentiality of Private Ex
Page 78 and 79: In close to half of the countries,
Page 80 and 81: 114) Approximately what percentage
Page 82 and 83: . . RECONSTRUCTIONISTS’ wORkING f
Page 84 and 85: Academic Research 46% of respondent
Page 86 and 87: LU I would consider as important an
Page 88 and 89: FR Favorize co-optation (Nomination
Page 90: Responses to question 135: possible
Page 93 and 94:
t R A n S l At I o n S o f t h E P
Page 95 and 96:
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
Page 117 and 118:
Page 119 and 120:
Page 121 and 122:
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
Page 131 and 132:
1 0
Page 134 and 135:
6. Appendices A P P E n D I C E S 1
Page 136 and 137:
Appendix II Agenda QUERY Phase II w
Page 138 and 139:
accident analysis: see -> accident
Page 140 and 141:
Appendix ‘D’, Forensics for Col
Page 142 and 143:
• In connection with night-time p
Page 144 and 145:
21) Please tell us, in percentages,
Page 146 and 147:
67) Is the ISO standard and its acc
Page 148 and 149:
108) If it is the judge who makes t
Page 150 and 151:
1. Name and Registered Office The a
Page 152 and 153:
the Executive Committee three years
Page 154:
The European Association for Accide
show all

THE QUERY PROJECT - European Commission - Europa

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?