A court-appointed valuation expert is a professional designated by a court (commercial court, civil tribunal, arbitral chamber) to conduct an independent valuation of a business, business assets, shares or other assets in the context of litigation. They act as a technical specialist serving the judge, whose decision they inform through objective and documented analysis.

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In France, court-appointed experts are listed by Courts of Appeal and must follow a strict ethical framework (objectivity, adversarial process, deadline respect). The mission is defined by a court order specifying the questions to be answered. The parties have a right to submit observations (dires) — a contradictory mechanism allowing them to comment on and challenge the expert's conclusions before the final report.

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In Switzerland, judicial expertise is governed by the Civil Procedure Code (CPC art. 183 ff.) which distinguishes the party's private expert (Privatgutachter) from the court-appointed expert (gerichtlicher Experte). The court's expert is bound by an impartiality obligation and may be recused on the same grounds as a judge.

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The main occasions for court-appointed valuation expertise in Franco-Swiss transactions include: shareholder disputes on share value (forced sale, shareholder exclusion, valuation in shareholders' agreements), divorce proceedings involving professional assets, tax litigation on market value, and post-closing price adjustment disputes.

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Example: two 50/50 shareholders of a Swiss SME cannot agree on the buyout price of the departing shareholder's stake. The cantonal court appoints a valuation expert. The expert retains a value of CHF 8.4 million (Swiss practitioners' method: 2/3 earnings value + 1/3 substantive value) vs the divergent claims of CHF 6.5 million (buying shareholder) and CHF 10.5 million (selling shareholder). The judgment adopts the expert's valuation.

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At Hectelion, we conduct judicial and amicable valuation expertises for Franco-Swiss disputes, with structured reports defensible before any jurisdiction.