Research On The Expert Opinion System

Litigation is a judging process of deciding the resolution of the dispute based on the facts and the law. With more and more involvement of modern science and technology in litigation, the difficult professional knowledge become an obstacle in the process of litigation. To verify the facts in litigation, judges always turn to those experts in the corresponding fields who can offer help in the form of expert opinion. Expert opinion in China have two forms: expert evidence and expert assessor, yet, with some deficiency.The paper holds that some deficiencies exist in the running system: indefinite sphere, the court impeachment of evidence existing in name only, over dependence of the court on the expert evidence, and such deficiencies in applying expert assessor as applicable scope, qualification affirmation, participation process, and rules of evidence. The paper, having made a comprehensive comparison on such system between the two western genealogy of laws, discusses the theoretical premises of perfecting the expert opinion system: exactly defining the characteristics of expert, properly understanding the evidential nature of expert opinion, converting court authority-dominance to litigant-dominance, improving the efficiency, and decreasing lawsuit cost. Thus, in order to play a positive role in improving China's system of judicial action, the paper brings out some constructive suggestions: appointment of assessor, object of expert opinion, process of impeachment of evidence, the rules of admission and evaluation of expert conclusion, the qualification of the expert assessor, participation process, and rules of evidence.