ART 408: The court shall examine the admissibility of the proceeding initiated to claim damages, and where appropriate, shall declare it inadmissible. Inadmissibility may also be raised by the public prosecutor, the defendant, the person liable under civil law or another party claiming damages. ART 409: The party claiming damages may always be represented in court. In this case, the judgement shall be considered to have been handed down after full hearing in his/her regard . ART 410: The party claiming damages regularly summoned who fails to appear in court or who is not represented at the hearing shall be consisted as having withdrawn the proceedings he/she initiated to claim damages. In this case, and if the only action taken under the criminal procee ding is the direct summons issued at the request of the party claiming damages, the court shall rule on the said action only if it is so required by the public prosecutor; unless the defendant petitions the court for damages on grounds of misuse of direct summons. ART 411: The withdrawal of the party claiming damages shall not impede the civil case before the civil court. Section III - Evidence ART 412: Excluding the case where the law provides otherwise, offences may be proven using any form of evidence and the judge shall base his/her decision on his/her personal conviction. The judge shall base his/her decision solely on the evidence presented to him/her during proceedings and discussed by both parties before him/her. ART 413: A report or record shall have evidentiary value only if it’s drawn up according to the required form, if its author acted in the performance of his/her duties and reported, within the ambit of his/her competence, on something that he/she saw, heard or witnessed personally. ART.414: Excluding cases where the law provides otherwise, reports and records attesting to the said felonies shall have only informational value. ART.415: In cases where judicial police officials, judicial police officers or civil servants and worker s tasked with some judicial police duties have been given, by a special provision of the law, the power to attest to misdemeanours through reports or records, evidence in rebuttal may be provided only in writing or by witnesses. ART 416: Communication between an accused and his/her counsel shall not be considered written evidence. ART 417. Special laws shall govern issues that require binding records as long as their veracity is not challenged. Failing a formal provision, the procedure to challenge the veracity of a record or report shall be governed as provided for in part XI chapter 1 of this code. ART 418: The provisions of article 102 of this code shall apply to witnesses before the misdemeanours court. ART 419: Before taking the testimonies of witnesses, the president shall interrogate the defendant and take down his/her statements. The public prosecutor, the party claiming damages and the defence, the latter through the president, may also interrogate the defendant. ART 420: Among the witnesses summoned, those presented by the prosecutors shall be heard first, unless the president decides to handle independently the examination of witnesses. Persons proposed by the parties who are presented at the start of proceedings without having been regularly summoned may also be summoned. 63