On 1 March, several significant amendments to the Civil Procedure Law came into force in accordance with the Transitional Provisions of the said law, adopted by the Saeima on 14 December 2017. Individual amendments to the Law directly affect the proceedings at the Supreme Court. 

Security deposit for an ancillary complaint

In accordance with amendments to the Civil Procedure Law, from 1 March 2018 a security deposit of EUR 70 shall be paid instead of EUR 28.46 payable previously for filing an ancillary complaint.

Amendments to Section 449 of the Civil Procedure Law provide that, by appealing decisions referred to in Paragraphs two and three of this Section before the Supreme Court (including decisions regarding ancillary complaints on termination of legal proceedings, decisions to refuse to accept a claim or decisions of judges of land registry offices) a security deposit of EUR 70 shall be paid instead of EUR 56.91 payable previously. Consequently, a security deposit of EUR 70 hereinafter shall be paid for all types of ancillary complaints.

The security shall not be paid by persons who according to law are exempt from the payment of state fee. Similarly, a court or a judge, having regard to the property status of a natural person, may fully or partially release the person from the payment of a security deposit.

If the court fully or partially revokes or amends the appealed decision on ancillary complaint, the security deposit shall be repaid. If the ancillary complaint is rejected, the security deposit shall not be refunded.

For more details on security deposits and refunds, see here.

 

Information to be indicated in an ancillary complaint
From 1 March, when filing an ancillary complaint, the applicant must comply with the requirements set out in Section 4431 of the Civil Procedure Law regarding the information to be included in an ancillary complaint.

If such an ancillary complaint is submitted that does not comply with the requirements of Section 4431 of the Civil Procedure Law, the judge shall decide to take no action with regard to the ancillary complaint and sets a deadline for elimination of deficiencies. If the applicant, within a specified time limit, remedies the deficiencies indicated in the decision to take no action with regard to the ancillary complaint, the ancillary complaint shall be deemed to have been filed on the day on which it was first submitted to the court. Otherwise, the complaint is deemed not to have been filed and shall be returned to the applicant.

Delivery of the judgment
Due to amendments to the procedure of delivery of judgments applicable to judgments of the court of first instance and court of appeal, the relevant terminology regarding the delivery of judgments of the cassation court has been changed. Up to now, in accordance with Section 4643 of the Civil Procedure Law, when examining a case in written proceedings, a court judgment was delivered by immediately issuing a copy of the judgment to the parties after the drafting of judgment. Whereas, the date when the copy of the judgment could be received at the court chancery was considered the date of the composition of full judgment. From 1 March, the date when the copy of the judgment can be received at the court chancery, shall be considered the date of delivery of the judgment. Both when examining the case in written proceedings and at the hearing, the term "full judgment" will no longer be used, now it is substituted by the term "judgment".

The explanation of the other amendments to the Civil Procedure Law, which come into force on 1 March 2018, can be found here.

  

Information prepared by

Rihards Gulbis, Legal Research Counsel to the Department of Civil Cases