The Third Meeting of the Standing Committee of the Thirteenth National People's Congress of Liaoning Province recently considered the Regulations on Judicial Appraisal of Liaoning Province (Draft).

The draft stipulates the management system of forensic appraisal, the registration permission and rights and obligations of the appraisal institutions and appraisers, the standardization of forensic appraisal activities and the guarantee of the process of forensic appraisal in accordance with the law. The draft stipulates that if the matter of appraiser's cross-examination may lead to unfavorable personal safety, the authentic name, address, work unit and contact information of the appraiser shall not be disclosed, and measures such as synchronous video testimony shall be taken to avoid exposing his appearance and real voice.

Unified management system of judicial expertise

Since 2005, the team of forensic appraisal institutions and experts in Liaoning has been growing, and the business volume of forensic appraisal has increased year by year. At present, there are 227 judicial appraisal institutions, 2269 judicial appraisers, more than 20 types of appraisal, and 70,000 annual judicial appraisal business, effectively guaranteeing the smooth progress of litigation activities. However, with the in-depth development of judicial expertise and the continuous advancement of judicial reform, some prominent problems have also been exposed in practice. Lin Zhimin, director of the Liaoning Provincial Department of Justice, said that in 2017, the Central Leading Group for Comprehensive Deepening Reform adopted the "Opinions on Implementing a Sound and Unified Judicial Appraisal Management System", which made a top-level design for the management of judicial expertise. Therefore, in order to standardize judicial expertise activities, ensure the healthy and orderly development of the judicial expertise industry, and promote judicial justice, it is necessary to formulate local laws and regulations.

In the unification of judicial expertise management system, according to the spirit of the central implementation of opinions, the draft makes provisions from three aspects.

Firstly, the scope of judicial appraisal is defined, which includes forensic medicine, material evidence, audio-visual data, environmental damage appraisal and other appraisal items that should be registered and managed by the judicial administrative department of the State Council in consultation with the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate according to the needs of litigation.

Secondly, the unified registration system for appraisal bodies and appraisers is clearly established, that is, unless otherwise stipulated by law and the state, any organization or individual may not engage in judicial appraisal business without registration by the provincial judicial administrative department and incorporation into the roster of appraisal bodies and appraisers.

Finally, it clarifies the management of the internal appraisal bodies of the investigative organs, that is, the appraisal bodies and their appraisers set up by the state organs exercising their investigative powers according to the needs of the investigative work by the public security organs and other state organs, whose establishment organs are responsible for the qualification examination and management in accordance with the law, and shall not be entrusted to engage in the judicial appraisal business for the society, and shall Case management requires.

Appraisers are still under threat.

In order to implement the requirements of the Central Implementation Opinion on “ improve the registration management system of appraisers and appraisal institutions ” the draft unifies and clarifies the admission conditions and licensing procedures of appraisers and appraisal institutions. At the same time, in order to protect the appraisal institutions and appraisers to carry out the appraisal business according to law, safeguard their legitimate rights and interests, the draft makes specific provisions on the duties of appraisal institutions and the rights and obligations of appraisers.

The normalization and impartiality of judicial expertise are directly related to the quality and credibility of judicial expertise. To this end, the draft unifies the procedures and key links of acceptance and acceptance of appraisal, implementation of appraisal, evasion rules, technical treatment, appraisal opinions, termination conditions, re-appraisal, appraisal documents, corrective remedies and appraisal fees.

Lin Zhimin said that in practice, the personal safety of expert witnesses in court is still threatened. In view of this problem, the draft makes specific provisions on the measures that the people's court should take to protect the personal safety and dignity of expert witnesses in court.

The draft stipulates that if the people's court notifies the expert to appear in court, it shall serve the notice of the court to the expert three days before the court session, and provide him with special seats, passages, waiting areas and other necessary conditions for appearing in court. The personal safety and dignity of the appraiser should be protected from infringement. If the matter of witness's cross-examination may cause disadvantage to his personal safety, the authentic name, address, work unit and contact information of the appraiser shall not be disclosed, and measures such as synchronous video testimony shall be taken to avoid exposing his appearance and real voice.

In addition, in order to relieve the worries of the expert appearing in court and safeguard his legitimate rights and interests, according to the Opinions of the Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Justice on the Establishment of a Linkage Mechanism for the Administration and Use of Judicial Appraisal, the handling and standards of transportation and accommodation expenses incurred by the expert appearing in court are also stipulated.

The draft clearly states that the expenses of transportation, accommodation, living expenses and allowances for work delays incurred by the appraiser appearing in court on the appointed date of the people's court shall be borne by the litigant according to law, and the people's court shall collect them on behalf of the litigant, and the appraisal organ shall issue the lawful certificate to the litigant. The transportation, accommodation and living expenses incurred by the expert appearing in court shall be executed in accordance with the standard of travel expenses of general staff of provincial state organs; the allowance for delayed work shall be executed in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Supreme People's Court; if the appearing time in court is less than one day, the allowance shall be calculated in one day.

Prohibition of intermediary solicitation of appraisal business

Lin Zhimin said that in view of the outstanding problems in Liaoning Province, such as more appraisal agencies, uneven quality, less high-quality resources and unfair competition, the draft mainly stipulates in four aspects:

It stipulates that the government should make overall planning for the development of forensic appraisal industry, promote rational layout, optimize structure, meet needs and develop in an orderly manner, and strictly enlarge the registration management of new appraisal institutions and appraisal items.

Encourage the construction of high-standard accreditation institutions and key laboratories relying on high-quality resources such as institutions of higher learning, scientific research institutes and medical institutions;

In the entrusting link, the public security organs, people's courts and other organs handling cases should improve the selection and entrusting procedures of appraisal bodies. If the judicial appraisal needs to be entrusted, they should make public, selective and random choices in the appraisal bodies included in the announcement roster, and may not adopt the way of appointment or through intermediary agencies. An appraisal institution with excellent professional quality assessment and high social credibility should create conditions to increase its chances of being selected.

It is clearly stipulated that an appraisal institution shall not entrust an intermediary agency to solicit appraisal business.

The draft stipulates five systems for the administration of judicial expertise in accordance with the requirements of reforming and innovating the way of supervision, in the spirit of publicly promoting justice and publicly promoting public trust. &rdquo, Lin Zhimin said.

The draft establishes a supervision system that combines the dynamic supervision of appraisal institutions and the roster of appraisers with the supervision and spot check, perfects the withdrawal mechanism, establishes the appraisal institution's practice quality evaluation system through the third-party evaluation, establishes an information platform for the supervision of judicial appraisal, and supervises the registration, roster and reward of appraisal institutions and appraisers. Information is collected, classified, recorded and made public to the public; a coordination mechanism for judicial expertise is established, requiring the judicial administrative departments to regularly inform the public security organs and people's courts at the same level of their management. The people's courts shall improve the rules for acceptance of expert opinions according to law and regularly feedback the acceptance of expert opinions to the judicial administrative departments at the same level. And the appraisers appear in court, etc., and establish a complaint handling mechanism.

In addition, according to the nature and harmfulness of different subjects and illegal acts, and in line with the principle of excessive punishment, the draft sets different levels of punishment, reasonably restricts the discretion, and generally strengthens the punishment.

If the draft stipulates that, in violation of these Regulations, an appraisal institution or an appraiser has one of the following circumstances, the provincial judicial administrative department shall impose a penalty of not less than three months but not more than one year for suspending the judicial appraisal business; if the circumstances are serious, the registration shall be revoked; if the case constitutes a crime, the criminal responsibility shall be investigated according to law: because of serious irresponsibility, the lawful rights and interests of the parties are created. Major losses; fraudulent forensic opinions; other circumstances prescribed by laws and administrative regulations.

The draft also stipulates that if an appraiser causes losses to the parties due to intentional or gross negligence in his practice, the appraisal institution in which he belongs shall bear civil liability for compensation according to law. After having undertaken the liability of compensation, the appraisal institution may recover the claim from the appraiser.

Source: Legal Daily