Representing an Expert as Advocacy
The representation of an expert witness is in Georgia an ordinary form of advocacy: the Law on Advocacy defines the activity as comprising legal advice to the person who has approached for assistance, representation of the client in constitutional, criminal, civil and administrative cases before courts, arbitration, and bodies of detention and investigation, the preparation of legal documents, and the provision of legal assistance not involving representation before a third person. An expert who finds himself at the epicentre of a dispute or an investigation fits within this frame as a client — and the protection of his interests is settled by the advocate's general rights and duties. It should be noted that the litigation-support framing of "expert consulting" known from other systems is not a separate institute in Georgian practice — here it is ordinary client representation on the basis of the advocacy law, while the procedural standing of the expert belongs to procedural legislation.
Within the frame of advocacy the advocate also prepares legal documents toward third persons and submits any documentation in the client's name — in the expert's case this means that the clarifications, requests and answers connected with the conclusion are given correct form and are submitted in his name.
The Advocate's Rights in the Expert's Case
The advocate has the right to represent and defend the client, his rights and freedoms, before the constitutional, supreme and common courts, in arbitration and before investigative bodies, and in relations with other natural and legal persons. For the protection of interests, the advocate may, in the manner established by legislation, demand and receive the documents, certificates and other factual data necessary for the activity — in the expert's case, this means access to the materials connected with the conclusion. The advocate's activity may be restricted only by law — a formula that is the guarantee of independence. When the expert is the client, these rights carry a particular function: the expert's position frequently requires a fresh consideration of his own conclusion, and it is precisely that reconsideration, on a documentary base, that the advocate secures.
The guarantee of contact deserves separate mention: the advocate has the right, unhindered, at any time and without control — in the manner established by criminal procedure legislation — to meet a detained, arrested or otherwise confined person and to correspond with them. When, in the expert's case, this guarantee joins the access to materials, the architecture of defence becomes complete: neither the document remains inaccessible nor the person isolated.