SPAIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Xavier Moliner and Juan Martínez, Faus Moliner
tionate damage to the persons involved in the litigation or to any third parties. 2.7 Rules for Disclosure of Documents in Product Liability Cases Under Spanish civil law, there is no general dis - covery obligation between the litigating parties – neither before court proceedings are com - menced nor as part of the pre-trial procedures. The Spanish civil system is based on the prin - ciple of parties’ own production of evidence (ie, each litigant shall obtain and present its own evidence to support its claims in court proceed - ings). Exceptionally, and only in those cases in which they are unable to obtain by themselves certain data necessary to file a claim, the applicant may request that the judge provide access to certain sources of evidence specifically provided for, prior to filing the lawsuit by way of preliminary proceedings, in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure 1/2000. Among other preliminary proceedings provided in the law: • any interested party may request a copy of the medical records from the health centre or professional with custody of said records; and • an individual who considers themselves to have been damaged by an event that could be covered by civil liability insurance may request the exhibition of the insurance con - tract. In addition, at the pre-trial hearing, any litigant may request the judge to order the other party, or third parties unrelated to the proceedings, to exhibit any document related to the subject of the dispute. In said request, the applicant must:
• prove that the document is not available to them and prove the impossibility of obtaining it; • prove that the document refers to the subject of the process (because it is documentary evidence relevant to the case) or to the effec - tiveness of other means of proof (because it gives, or does not give, effectiveness to other evidence presented); and • provide a photocopy or simple copy of the document or indicate its content in the most exact terms. 2.8 Rules for Expert Evidence in Product Liability Cases In this type of proceeding, the litigants are responsible for proposing the examination of expert evidence. The only restriction regarding its nature and scope is that it must be neces - sary to have scientific, artistic, technical or practical knowledge to ascertain any facts or circumstances that are relevant to the matter or to acquire certainty about them. The parties are allowed to present their own evi - dence and bring their own technical specialists, and/or request the court to appoint any tech - nical specialist in order to assess the evidence presented by the parties or ascertain any facts or circumstances that are relevant to the matter of the case. Generally, in this kind of proceeding, the court may not ex officio propose the examination of expert evidence nor appoint technical special - ists in order to assess the evidence presented by the parties. However, in exceptional cases, once the proceedings have been concluded and before judgment is rendered, the court may ex officio order the examination of new evidence (including expert evidence) on relevant facts if
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