Preventive Court-appointed technical consultancy, provided for in article 696-bis of the Code of Civil Procedure, is a simplified procedure designed to facilitate settlement agreements between the parties, at a stage preceding the contentious phase of ordinary proceedings, in cases where the dispute has technical aspects which must be clarified by an impartial expert in a contradictory procedure between the parties. More specifically, the procedure provides for the appointment of a technical expert by the competent Court to whom the Judge submits the appropriate questions to clarify the matter in dispute.
This procedure is an effective instrument of procedural deflation, as it allows the parties to obtain technical advice characterised by objectivity and the status of a third party, without having to go through a full proceeding on the merits. The findings of the court-appointed technical consultancy are obviously a solid basis for an amicable agreement. If this fails and then the proceedings on the merits are initiated, they will be based on an already acquired basis, such as the report filed by the court-appointed expert.
