1. Role of the court-appointed expert

The CPC and the CJA allow the judicial and administrative courts to order an expert appraisal in two main situations: before any trial and during the course of proceedings.

• Before any trial, by the interim relief judge :

  "If there is a legitimate reason to preserve or establish, prior to any trial, proof of facts on which the outcome of a dispute may depend" (CPC, art. 145) or "to establish without delay the facts which may give rise to a dispute before the court" (CJA, art. R. 531-1).

  These are the so-called in futurum investigative measures, which could be called evidence preservation measures, as they aim to preserve, for the future, what could not be the subject of subsequent findings.

• In the course of proceedings,...