1. Introduction

Retningslinjen beskriver hovedtrekkene i fremgangsmåten for valg av fagkyndige i den enkelte sak. For å sikre notoritet om fremgangsmåten ved nemndas valg av fagkyndige i den enkelte sak, skal det utarbeides lokale rutinebeskrivelser i tråd med denne retningslinjen. Rutinen skal beskrive arbeidsoppgavene som er knyttet til valg av fagkyndig og hvem som har ansvaret for å utføre de ulike oppgavene.

2. The Child Welfare Tribunal's committee of experts

Each tribunal has a committee of experts appointed by the Central Office, cf. Section 7-2 of the Child Welfare Act. The experts are appointed to decide cases pursuant to the Child Welfare Act and the Health and Health Care Act.

The conditions for being appointed to the committee of experts are described in the Guidelines for appointment of expert members for the term 2021–2024. All appointed experts are deemed to be qualified to hold office as expert members of a tribunal. The tribunal cannot use only certain professional groups or individual experts in its cases. Experts are appointed to the tribunal’s committee of experts in the county where he or she lives. Subject to the expert’s consent, they may also receive enquiries about cases from other tribunals. When choosing experts for individual cases, the tribunals should, as a rule, use experts who live in their geographical area.


 

3. The principle of randomness

In principle, experts should be randomly selected for individual cases, meaning that an expert will be drawn from members with the qualifications and expertise required in the case in question. Exemptions may be made from this principle when a new expert member is appointed to the committee in order to allow the new expert to quickly gain experience of the tribunal work.

4. Special expertise requirements

If special expertise is required in a case, the tribunal chair will give notification of this in connection with the preliminary assessment of the case. Offering an assignment in a specific case to a particular professional group will not breach the principle of randomness.

Some cases require special expertise. In such cases, the principle of randomness dictates that an expert be drawn from a group of expert members who possess the special expertise that the case requires. If possible, the group offered an assignment should consist of at least five people. In exceptional circumstances, the group may comprise fewer than five people, but never fewer than two. Alternatively, an enquiry can be addressed to the entire committee of experts and the case assigned by a draw from among experts who possess the relevant expertise and have expressed an interest in the assignment.

5. Using experts who are not members of the tribunal’s committee of experts

If it is not possible to find an expert from the Child Welfare Tribunal's committee or if the tribunal lacks the desired expertise, experts who live outside the tribunal's geographical area can be used.

Several experts have agreed to take on cases for other tribunals. An overview of all experts, their experience and expertise, and whether they have agreed to accept cases for tribunals outside of their geographical area, is available on the intranet.

The general manager must be notified when the tribunal uses an expert who is not a member of its own committee of experts.

6. Impartiality

When the tribunal sends an email to an expert offering him or her an assignment, it will state which municipality is the public party to the case. The email will also include a reminder that the expert cannot accept the assignment if he or she has, has previously had, or is about to start an assignment for the municipality in question.
Once an expert has been selected, the case officer must clarify whether the expert has any ties to the private parties and other participants in the case, such as witnesses or the tribunal chair. If the case officer has doubts about the expert's impartiality, the matter is raised with the chair of the tribunal.
 

7. Self-declaration

In order to obtain relevant information of significance in the assessment of the expert's impartiality, experts are required to complete a self-declaration form. The form is sent by email to the expert selected.
The expert must submit the self-declaration form to the tribunal in electronic form as soon as possible, and within one week at the latest.
Once the self-declaration form is received, it is registered in ProSak as a document to be archived. The tribunal chair then verifies the expert's impartiality.
 

You can download and print the guidelines in PDF format here.