The Act on voluntary Jurisdiction affects insurance contracts. This new regulation modifies, particularly, paragraph 6 of art. 38 from the Insurance Contract Act. From its entry into force (23rd July 2015) the legal framework for the designation of a third expert on the assumption no agreement is reached between the parties is amended. The new legal framework will enable the expert’s designation through Court or by means of a notarial involvement.

If the designation is done through Court, the competent Court to make the appointment will be the Commercial Court of the insured’s domicile. The appointment can be applied for by any of the parties involved with no need of lawyer’s or procurator’s intervention. The procedure will start by an application setting out the areas where there is no agreement between the appointed experts to assess the damage thus requesting the appointment of a third expert. The application must be accompanied with Insurance Policy and the experts’ reports. Once declared admissible, the parties will be called for a hearing where the Court’s Clerk who will requires the parties to attempt to reach an agreement on the appointment of a third expert. If no agreement is reached, the appointment will follow the rules of the Civil Procedure Code. Once the appointment is made, the expert will be required to accept or reject the appointment, such appointment can only be rejected for a justified reason. Once the appointments is accepted, the report shall be served within 30 days, unless agreed otherwise by the parties.

The new Act also allows the appointment of the expert through notarial involvement, with a very similar procedure led by a Public Notary commonly agreed by the parties, or by any Public Notary near the Insured’s domicile, or by Public Notary close to the place where the goods being valued rest. The most important difference between these two procedures is that, in this latter one, the designation of the third expert will be performed by using experts’ lists published by the different professional associations, similar entities, Academies and cultural or scientific institutions.

Relevant dispositions in the Act on voluntary Jurisdiction: Arts. 136, 137 and 138; Ninth final disposition by which art. 38 is modified, and eleventh final disposition where the Notaries Act of May 28th 1982 is reformed by introducing a new Title VII of Public Notaries Intervention in files and special acts (Art. 80 in relation with Art. 50).