Project Updates

Liga has recently pointed out the deficiencies in the work of forensic experts in the health care system. The Ministry of Justice has now prepared an amendment which should improve the work of forensic experts.

But instead of preparing a completely new Act, as it was suggested also by the ombudsman, the Ministry decided only to amend the existing Act.

The amendment aims at a better specification of requirements imposed on the experts and at defining mistakes which are considered an infraction. The amendment does not define the criteria for completing an expert report or for verifying the expert’s competency (e.g. in Austria, the legislation says that an expert is on the experts’ list for 5 years and has to apply for prolongation every 10 years). The procedure for appointing and removing an expert is poorly regulated as well.

Liga sent the Ministry its suggestions concerning the amendment. As it is written in the Liga Policy Paper No. 7 – Problems in the Work of Experts in the Health Care System (only in Czech), many current problems are caused not by the legislation, but by the public authorities that are benevolent to delays in preparing the expert reports, asking experts incorrect questions and failing to examine the expert journals. Although the amendment provides for establishment, commissions for experts’ matters, which are created to help examine the competency of applicants for the work of experts, are not often established. Liga hopes that the Ministry will take further steps towards the improvement of the forensic expert system.