Legislative part

Any decision appointing experts must set a time limit for them to complete their assignment. If special reasons so require, this time limit may be extended at the request of the experts and by a reasoned decision issued by the magistrate or court that appointed them. Experts who do not submit their report within the time limit set for them may be replaced immediately and must give an account of…

A copy of the decision ordering an expert opinion is sent without delay to the public prosecutor and to the parties, who have a period of ten days in which to ask the investigating judge, in accordance with the procedures set out in the penultimate paragraph of Article 81, to amend or supplement the questions put to the expert or to add to the expert or experts already appointed an…

If the period provided for in Article 161 exceeds one year, the investigating judge may request that a progress report be filed beforehand, which shall be notified to the parties in accordance with the procedures set out in Article 167. The parties may then send their observations to the expert and the judge at the same time with a view to the final report.

If the experts ask to be enlightened on a question outside their speciality, the judge may authorise them to be assisted by named persons specially qualified by their competence. The persons thus appointed shall take an oath under the conditions laid down in Article 160. Their report will be appended in full to the report referred to in Article 166.

Before sending the seals to the experts, the examining magistrate or the magistrate appointed by the court shall, if necessary, make an inventory of them in accordance with the conditions laid down in Article 97. He lists these seals in a report. For the purposes of their mission, the experts are authorised to open or re-open seals and to make new seals after, if necessary, repackaging the objects they were…

Experts may receive, by way of information and for the sole purpose of carrying out their mission, statements from any person other than the person under investigation, the assisted witness or the civil party. However, if the examining magistrate or the magistrate appointed by the court has authorised them to do so, they may, with the consent of the interested parties, take statements from the accused person, the assisted witness…

During the expert appraisal, the parties may ask the court that ordered it to order the experts to carry out certain research or to hear any named person who may be able to provide them with information of a technical nature. .

Once the expert appraisal operations have been completed, the experts draw up a report which must contain a description of the said operations and their conclusions. The experts shall sign their report and mention the names and capacities of the persons who assisted them, under their control and responsibility, in carrying out the operations deemed by them to be necessary for the performance of the assignment entrusted to them. Where…

The examining magistrate shall inform the parties and their lawyers of the conclusions of the experts after having summoned them in accordance with the provisions of the second paragraph of Article 114. It shall also inform them, where applicable, of the conclusions of the reports of the persons required pursuant to Articles 60 and 77-1, where the provisions of the last paragraph of Article 60 have not been applied. A…

Where the conclusions of the expert opinion are such as to lead to the application of the provisions of the first paragraph of Article 122-1 of the Criminal Code providing that a person is not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder, the civil party shall be notified in accordance with the conditions set out in the first paragraph of Article 167, where applicable in the presence of the…