HIBAPRESS
The House of Representatives, in a general legislative session held on Monday evening, approved by a majority the draft law No. 01.24 concerning judicial experts.
The draft law was approved by 80 parliamentarians and opposed by 34 deputies, while no deputy abstained from voting. In a presentation of the draft law, the Minister of Justice, Abdelatif Wehbe, affirmed that this legislative text falls within the framework of continuing to implement the justice system reform project, especially the part related to qualifying legal and judicial professions, considering that these professions "play a pivotal and essential role within the system and contribute directly to achieving judicial efficiency." The Minister explained that the project aims to review the current law governing the role of experts, reviewing its most important developments at the registration level, and reviewing the required seniority regarding the national list of experts, in addition to emphasizing the qualification of legal persons. At the level of framing and penalties, he noted that it was stipulated that a judicial expert registered for the first time must undergo a basic training period, as well as the mandatory continuous training as a tool to strengthen and update legal and professional knowledge. He also addressed other developments, mainly in considering the expenses of expertise and the effort exerted when determining fees, and granting the expert legal protection, with the recognition of his civil liability for his professional errors and the errors of his assistants, in addition to obliging those who reach 70 years of age to submit an annual medical certificate proving their ability to practice their duties. The government official added that contemporary developments have led to "the emergence of multiple and diverse disputes that require technical culture and require the dismantling of complex and intricate crimes," which necessitated improving judicial work to establish trust. For its part, the majority parties considered that this legislative text constitutes a basic building block and a decisive entry point to continue completing the implementation of the justice system reform project in the Kingdom, noting that it comes in response to an urgent objective need to modernize the legal framework of the profession, which practical practice has shown its limitations in keeping pace with the profound transformations that have occurred in the nature of disputes presented to the courts. These parliamentary components praised the qualitative provisions of the project, especially setting precise conditions for access and registration, and institutionalizing training, in addition to establishing a clear disciplinary and supervisory system that links responsibility with accountability, praising, at the same time, the legislative dynamics and the positive interaction of the government with the amendments submitted. For their part, the opposition groups and the group highlighted that reforming this system requires a comprehensive vision that goes beyond the purely organizational approach to address the observed imbalances, noting that the judicial expert has become an effective partner in making judicial decisions given the complexity of the cases and the overlap of their scientific and technical dimensions, which imposes a legal framework that improves the quality of judgments and enhances the confidence of litigants. These groups called for the establishment of binding legal deadlines for the completion of expertise, coupled with penalties to avoid delays in litigation, stressing that the establishment of a national body and regional bodies for judicial experts constitutes an urgent and fundamental requirement for institutionalizing the profession, standardizing its standards, and defending the independence of practitioners.
