The Expert

The expert is an individual who is called to collaborate in the process when understanding the facts or evaluating evidence requires specialised technical or scientific knowledge. Typically, they provide expert reports about their area of scientific expertise, but they may occasionally be called to clarify points in court. For instance, there might be a need for a physician to explain the injuries suffered by the victim and how they were inflicted or for a psychologist or psychiatrist to describe the defendant’s mental characteristics to assess their personality. Alternatively, a computer engineer might be required to demonstrate how a software program was used to commit a crime. In these cases, the physician, psychologist, or computer engineer utilises their technical and scientific knowledge to help better understand what happened.

The expert witness is asked to collaborate either by the judge or the Public Prosecutor, and this can happen on their own initiative or because one of the participants in the process requested it.

After conducting the expert evaluation, the expert writes a report in which they must include their conclusions about what they examined and assessed. If notified to appear in court, the expert witness gives statements and answers questions about the expert evaluation they conducted and their respective conclusions.