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GSI – Gesellschaft für Schweißtechnik international mbH
SLV – Schweißtechnische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalten

Expert reports

Expert reports are drafted whenever a) the parties involved in a project are of the opinion that the contractually agreed nominal value does not correspond to the actually provided (for example) quality, conformity or performance or b) damage has already occurred.

Thus, the commissioning party often also uses expert reports in order to prepare legal disputes.

On behalf of natural persons (private customers) or legal persons (companies and authorities), GSI drafts the most diverse kinds of expert reports with its highly qualified and experienced experts.

Since expert reports are a fixed constituent of our worldwide inspection activities, attention must be paid to the fundamental principles of inspection here too.

Thus, expert reports always have the objective of making binding statements about one or more questions of fact. For this purpose, the existing condition must be assessed first of all. This is often followed by more detailed special investigations which are oriented to the initial findings.

The final statement which must be comprehensible to laypersons and completely verifiable for specialists is then based on the competent interpretation and final evaluation of all the established results by the expert.

Experts

Since our experts have extensive experience in their specialist fields, they are therefore regularly called to our customers' premises in order to draft expert reports.

GSI's experienced experts know precisely what must be taken into account and investigated where and how.

In addition, they can also call upon a big team of experts from the most diverse subject areas in order to interpret and assess the established data.

Activities as experts

Different terms are used depending on who the client for an expert report is or at what point in time an expert report is drafted, e.g.:

Expert reports for courts

In this case, a court commissions an SLV employee in writing to draft an expert report on one or more questions which were formulated by the competent judge. In this respect, the SLV employee becomes a court specialist who, colloquially, is also designated as a court expert.

In this case, the appointed SLV employee must report exclusively to the competent judge.

Expert reports for parties

Reference is made to an expert report for a party whenever, in a legal dispute, one or more of the parties involved in the proceedings present an expert report which they have commissioned themselves. Then, reference is frequently also made to a private expert report.

Expert reports for the preservation of evidence

The situation often occurs that possible evidence of any conditions which may trigger damage later on is lost due to the ongoing construction or fabrication process.

In the case of an expert report for the preservation of evidence, GSI's experts record all the possible actual conditions relevant to damage and/or, wherever possible, take and put aside specimens for more detailed investigations.

Expert reports for the preservation of evidence may be commissioned not only by a court but also by private persons or companies. Depending on the client, a distinction is then made between a private expert report and an expert report for a court.

Expert reports on damage

If damage has already occurred, the so-called expert report on damage takes effect. The objective here is to firstly record the existing damage including all the recognisable influencing factors as comprehensively as possible. This may necessitate sampling too.

Expert reports on damage may be commissioned not only by a court but also by private persons or companies. Depending on the client, a distinction is then once again made between a private expert report and an expert report for a court.

Expert reports for arbitration

In German law, there is the possibility of letting a third party determine the performance. If the parties decide to do this and make the contractual agreement for all those involved to have individual contentious questions clarified in a binding form by an independent and neutral third party, reference is made to an expert report for arbitration (out-of-court proceedings). This must not be mixed up with arbitration proceedings.

In principle, it is applicable to the parties that, if a corresponding agreement was made, the performance determined by the expert report is binding on the parties.

The advantage of this arrangement relates to the fact that the parties stipulate jointly and by mutual consent, for example, that a GSI employee should be active as an arbitration expert, what his/her tasks and obligations are, what questions are to be clarified etc.