Courtesy report
Courtesy report is a designation for reports , statements or investigations that are not obliged to be factually or technically correct, but are based on the presumed or actual interest of a client or other beneficiary party, support certain points of view and are intended to deliver specified results.
Germany
In the out-of-court area, in particular, the party reports commissioned by only one of the parties to the dispute often encounter the objection on the part of the opposing party that they are courtesy reports which are therefore not objectively suitable as evidence . The boundaries between a presentation or evaluation of facts that are only as favorable as possible and an intentionally false or otherwise untruthful assessment are fluid and not always easy to define in concrete terms. A wrong, in particular knowingly wrong, assessment can, however, give rise to criminal liability or trigger liability for damages , and indeed also towards the client, who, for example, trusting the correctness of the assessment, embarks on a process with little chance of success.
In the case of an expert opinion commissioned by the court, there are clear legal requirements with regard to the expert's obligations to provide his expert opinion carefully and impartially. If the expert deviates from these requirements intentionally or negligently, he can make himself liable to prosecution and liability for damages , for example because of bribery or because of a testimony offense.
It is difficult to prove that a - false - courtesy report has been provided. Often an application to obtain a new expert opinion according to § 412 ZPO promise success, only in exceptional cases will a witness or documentary evidence be considered.
Insurance industry
According to the General Association of the German Insurance Industry (GdV), the German insurance industry incurs damage of 35.4 million euros annually from courtesy reports. There are cases in which experts prepare such reports for motor vehicle comprehensive insurance companies in order to deceive the insurer, for example by setting the current value of a vehicle involved in an accident too low or too high the initial value of the vehicle before the damaging event.
medicine
Medical reports that issue false safety certificates despite proven side effects or questionable drug interactions with other preparations in order to obtain advantages for the expert or his client, cause lasting damage to patients and the economy.
literature
- Rolf-Dieter Reineke, Friedrich Bock (Hrsg.): Gabler Lexikon Unternehmensberatung . 1st edition. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-409-12008-1 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Courtesy report. In: Duden. Accessed February 1, 2020 .
- ↑ Rolf-Dieter Reineke, Friedrich Bock (Ed.): Gabler Lexikon Unternehmensberatung . 1st edition. Gabler Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-409-12008-1 , p. 142 ( limited preview in Google Book Search [accessed February 1, 2020]).
