In 2024, the Senate's Department of Civil Cases handled cases with remarkable efficiency, ending the year with a 107% case examination rate and reducing the backlog by 54 cases. The average time taken to process a case in the Department was 4.5 months, which is by 12% faster than in 2023.

At the Annual Report Plenary Session, the Chairman of the Department, Normunds Salenieks, indicated that the emphasis has to continuously be placed on deciding as quickly as possible whether cassation proceedings should be initiated. Refusals to initiate cassation proceedings have been issued on average within 3.2 months. In cases of ancillary complaints, the emphasis is also placed on deciding quickly whether ancillary complaint proceedings should be initiated. The decision to refuse to examine an ancillary complaint is made on average within 1.5 months.

The efficiency of the Department's performance is also reflected in the outcome of cassation proceedings, as in 2024 the contested judgments were upheld in only 8% of cases, which is a similar indicator to 2023 but significantly better than in 2019, when the contested judgments were upheld in 28% of cases. The Chair of the Department pointed out that this means that a great deal of emphasis is placed on researching a case and legal issues it raises before senators decide whether to initiate cassation proceedings. At the same time, it should be noted that this percentage cannot be significantly lower, as there are cases in which cassation proceedings should be initiated not because a contested judgment is incorrect, but because it is essential for the uniformity of case-law that the case is decided by a judgment of the Senate.

In 2024, 881 cases were examined in the Department, where each senator examined an average of 63 cases, which could be considered an optimal number of cases to be examined by a single judge in cassation. However, the change in the composition of senators meant that the Department had been working for a long time without three senators, which is one fifth of the Department's composition, and this had an impact on the overall number of cases dealt with, i.e. there were 129 fewer cases dealt with by the Department compared to 2023. It should also be noted that civil cases are becoming increasingly complex. The Chair of the Department indicated the additional workload of senators in various judicial self-governing bodies as another factor for the lower number of cases examined. The Chair considers that this is not a desirable practice, especially when the decisions taken by such bodies are to be subject to judicial review.

In the Department of Civil Cases, 85% of the case backlog is made up of cases received in the previous year and 12% in 2023. Only seven cases have been pending in the Department for more than two years, and in several of these cases the availability of judgments have been scheduled for January. Two cases have been suspended because the Department has referred them to the Court of Justice of the European Union for a preliminary ruling.

Normunds Salenieks noted that "in any case, we should continue to strive for shorter time-limits for adopting judgements. In 2024, the Department's senators delivered judgments in an average of 15.4 months, which can be explained by the fact that many of these court proceedings involve particularly complex legal issues, the solutions to which are of systemic and fundamental importance for many civil cases".

In 2024, the Department of Civil Cases once convened the General Assembly of the Senators of the Department provided for in the Law on Judicial Power as an instrument to ensure uniform application of law. In response to divergent case-law on the right of parties to proceedings to file a written explanation of an ancillary complaint, the General Assembly of Senators of the Department made systemically important findings in relation to the right of individuals to a fair trial.

Judicial dialogue

Effective judicial dialogue with the courts of first (district courts) and second (regional courts) instance is essential for the effective fulfilment of the main function of the cassation court, namely to ensure uniform case-law and the further development of law.

One of the forms of dialogue is meetings between the Chair of the Department and judges of the courts of first and second instance in judicial districts. During the meetings with the judges of regional courts and district (city) courts of Zemgale, Kurzeme and Latgale, for example, the issue of ensuring uniform case-law in simplified procedure cases, where judgments of regional courts cannot be appealed against by way of cassation, was raised. The discussion also focused on ways to more effectively limit the abuse of procedural rights and how to ensure that courts can, on their own initiative, obtain expert opinions on issues of importance for the adjudication of cases, where expertise is required. These meetings and the questions raised by colleagues also provide valuable feedback to the senators of the Department, helping to identify legal issues that can be addressed through the Senate’s case-law or, possibly, through decisions of the General Meetings of the Senators of the Department.

Moreover, the Chair of the Department highlighted the extensive work that the senators and counsels of the Department put into organising and conducting judicial training and seminars.

Last year, within the Department and Constitutional Court’s dialogue, the Constitutional Court adopted a decision on an application filed by the Department of Civil Cases concerning the manner in which payments for the difference in water consumption by residents of apartment buildings are to be determined in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers' regulations. The Constitutional Court confirmed the Department's doubts and declared the contested legal norm unconstitutional.

In 2024, the Department of Civil Cases requested a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union in relation to restrictive measures for actions undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.

Participation in the legislative process

In 2024, the Department of Civil Cases actively participated in a number of legislative initiatives, such as regarding the regulation of enforcement of obligations by way of warning, improvement of the procedure for reimbursement of litigation costs in cases arising from custody and access rights, improvement of the effectiveness of the regulation on temporary protection against violence, study on the inclusion of the amicus curiae in the Civil Procedure Law, improvement of the simplified procedure for examining cases.

  • The full report of Normunds Salenieks, Chair of the Department of Civil Cases of the Senate, will be published in the next issue of the Supreme Court Bulletin

 

More about the Annual Plenary Session of the Supreme Court:

 

 

Information prepared by

Rasma Zvejniece, Head of the Division of Communication of the Supreme Court

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: +371 67020396, +371 28652211