Events organised by the German Surgical Foundation 2016
23rd Münster Symposium - Dental challenges 30 January 2016
On 30 January 2016, the 23rd Münster Spring Symposium was once again held under the auspices of the German Surgical Foundation with the theme "Dental Challenges". The range of topics covered the entire field of dentistry. Over 1000 dentists were offered a programme covering all aspects of dentistry. Renowned speakers presented their latest findings from science and practice. The event was once again held in the Halle Münsterland congress centre. The well-established industry exhibition gave dentists the opportunity to exchange ideas during the break
02.11.2016 Parliamentary evening in Düsseldorf, presentation of the "Competence Centre for Expert Opinions in Law-Psychology-Medicine" initiative
On Wednesday, 2 November 2016, more than 100 representatives from politics, science and practice accepted the invitation of Dr Anja Kannegießer, Chair of the Legal Psychology Section of the BDP, Prof. Dr Conny Antoni, President of the German Society for Psychology (DGPs), and Silvia Groppler, Chair of the Working Group of Women Lawyers in the German Bar Association, to the parliamentary evening "Quality assurance of court reports" in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament in Düsseldorf. Guests included Thomas Kutschaty, Minister of Justice of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Barbara Steffens, Minister of Health in North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as the Chairmen of the Justice and Health Committee in the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament, Dr Ingo Wolf and Günter Garbrecht, and other members of the North Rhine-Westphalian state parliament. Representatives from the field included presidents and directors of various local, regional and higher regional courts in North Rhine-Westphalia as well as representatives from public prosecutors' offices and general public prosecutors' offices.
"The high level of interest and lively participation once again shows the enormous importance of this topic." said Dr Anja Kannegießer, one of the hosts of the evening. "Evenings like this promote the all-important interdisciplinary dialogue in order to find further approaches to quality assurance." Prof Dr Conny Antoni, President of the German Psychological Society, also gave a positive assessment of the evening. "A lot has happened in recent years to improve the quality of assessments and experts. The Federation of German Psychologists' Associations has been making its contribution since 1995 with its certified further training programme for specialist psychologists in legal psychology." "Expert opinions are enormously important for lawyers, especially in family court proceedings," added Silvia Groppler, Chairwoman of the Working Group of Women Lawyers in the German Bar Association, in her welcoming address. "In most cases, things are very emotional there. It is therefore all the more important that the experts provide expert reports that are technically flawless and leave no doubt about their neutrality." In their welcoming addresses to the evening, Dr Ingo Wolf, Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the State Parliament, Thomas Kutschaty, Minister of Justice of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Health, Barbara Steffens, spoke about the outstanding importance of high-quality expert opinions in criminal proceedings, family court proceedings and in law enforcement. Minister Kutschaty also welcomed the new initiative of an interdisciplinary competence centre for expert opinions. "This will bring together expertise from the fields of law, psychology and medicine under one roof across Germany," explained Anja Kannegießer. "The competence centre is set to become the central point of contact for questions relating to expert opinions in the legal system." In her keynote speech, Dr Ilka Muth, a judge at the Hamm Higher Regional Court, emphasised how great the need for this is. Judges often lack background knowledge about the specific qualifications and procedures of experts. The various lists of experts at the courts are also not yet as well known as would be desirable. Dr h.c. Rüdiger Deckers explained the conditions that must be met in order to guarantee the quality of expert reports and experts in criminal proceedings. As is the case in the family court area, the specialised science itself must also work on defining minimum standards for expert opinions and developing basic methods and systems for a qualified expert opinion. Judge at the Higher Regional Court Klaus Michael Böhm reported that there are currently plans to update the minimum requirements for prognosis reports developed ten years ago. In 2006, an interdisciplinary working group had developed minimum requirements for prognosis reports. Former members of the expert commission as well as newly appointed, renowned experts from various disciplines would now come together for an initial meeting in mid-December to discuss further steps. All participants agreed that although a lot has already been done to ensure the quality of expert reports, this is not enough in the long term. Well-trained experts and high-quality expert reports are one thing. However, it is equally important that judges, lawyers and public prosecutors are enabled to select suitable experts for the respective issue and to deal with, scrutinise and evaluate the expert reports. Further training for judges, as is mandatory in North Rhine-Westphalia, is a measure to better prepare judges for this task. In the end, the judges are the ones who decide - a statement that was emphasised several times during the evening.