New code of civil procedure

On 1 March, a new Code of Civil Procedure came into force aiming to speed up legal proceedings, improve the quality of court judgments and enhance the courts’ efficiency in line with European standards.

The key changes include:

• Allowing communications and summonses to be served, when a respondent cannot be served in person, by posting them through his letter box or sticking them to his front door, or doing so at any address where his lawyer is on business
• Requiring each party to cite all the facts he will rely on and all the means by which those facts will be proven in his statement of claim, with the court denying any motions to admit evidence which is irrelevant or late
• Requiring the defendant one month after receiving the statement of action to submit a written answer, take a stand, lodge a defence and cite evidence to be relied on
• Only admitting new evidence when it could not have been known to and cited by the party within the relevant time limit (eg for lodging an appeal or submitting a written answer)
• Enabling the claimant to seek a default judgment if the defendant fails to submit a written answer within the required time period and fails to appear at the first hearing
• Giving the court more scope to give instructions to the parties by asking them to clarify the facts or explain their relevance to the case
• Directing that cases concerning commercial disputes will be heard in the first instance by the district court
• Restricting rights to appeal to the Supreme Court of Cassation to intermediate appellate review judgments where the court has pronounced on a material issue of law or procedure which conflicts with existing Supreme Court case law or on which there are conflicting judgments, or concerns the correct application of the law which is material to the case
• Limiting the issue of writs of execution to juridical enforcement titles, and requiring enforcement proceedings based on non-juridical enforcement titles to be begun by issuing an enforcement order