The BVS (German Association of Publicly Certified and Qualified Experts) has been informed by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection that they plan to introduce a statutory rule regarding complaints about publicly certified experts in order to inform the various chambers responsible for the appointment of publicly certified experts about the misconduct of said experts. Through such a legally regulated power of notification, the chambers, meaning the chambers of commerce and industry, chambers of crafts, chambers of architects, chambers of engineers und chambers of agriculture, could be notified about any misconduct of the experts they appointed. Therefore, the chambers could thusly be enabled to react with consequences according to vocational law.

The initiative to create such a federally applicable statutory rule is growing out of the federal-state administrations of justice departments. This recommendation is justified by the idea that such a legally regulated possibility of complaint could support the chambers in their mandate for the quality management of publicly certified experts, which is in the interest of the judiciary. Furthermore, such a federally applicable statutory rule could be an incentive for the experts to discipline themselves in order to avoid any problems in connection with their professional suitability or their personal trustworthiness as publicly certified experts from the outset.

The BVS has argued in their statement addressed to the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection against the introduction of such a federally regulated law of complaint. Without a nationwide collection of data, if any misconduct of publicly certified experts regarding their expert opinions delivered to the courts exists at all and if so in which dimension and if there has been a significant increase during recent years, the BVS does not see any need for action from the legislator.

Furthermore, the BVS has indicated, that such a federally regulated law of complaint would only include the publicly certified experts, for any of the not publicly certified, the so called “free experts“, the system would not be applicable.

Wolfgang Jacobs

BVS, German Association of Publicly Certified and Qualified Experts