On January 1, 2003, the first Code of Civil Procedure of the Republic of Lithuania, which is aimed at eliminating many shortcomings, that existed due to the fact that Lithuania did not have any systemic legal act governing civil process, came into force. Principles of process’s concentration, economy, cooperation which constitute the core stone of new Code of Civil Procedure should put a stop to dragging out a process, should ensure that civil cases would be solved in one court hearing, as well as secure that court’s decision would be enforced in the shortest time as possible. Of course, the achievement of these goals will depend on how efficiently and correctly the new code will be applied, however, the new code contains a lot of prerequisites for attainment of these goals.

      

      Addressing the Court

      

      Since the provisions of new code are aimed at solving the case as efficiently as possible, therefore, the party is required to present the maximum amount of information already at the stage of addressing the court. One additional requirement for the content of a claim (as well as other procedural documents) is indication of requisites of parties’ accounts in banks and financial institutions. The parties should also indicate not only their address but also their fax number if they wish to receive documents by fax. Besides, parties are required to present as many copies of the annexes to the claim as there will be parties in the proceedings. Of course the amount of documents to be supplied to court increases, however, it should be emphasized that copies of the documents might be certified not only by the notary but also by the court, as well as attorney at law and legal person who has issued (received) the document. Thus, every person participating in the proceedings should have the same material that is in the case.

      Besides, in the claim the claimant should express his opinion on adoption of the decision in absentia if the respondent does not present rebuff to the claim as well as indicate the information whether he/she/it will be represented by an attorney at law.

      

      Preparation for Examination of the Case

      

      This stage of civil procedure has been reformed in essence. Already at this stage the parties are obliged to present all claims, must reveal all arguments and must present all necessary evidences. For the purposes of the aforementioned the respondent is bound to present rebuff to claimant’s claim within 14-30 days. If a respondent fails to present such a rebuff, the court is entitled, if the claimant requests so in the claim, to adopt the decision in absentia which might not be appealed in any case. The respondent has the right to request for revision of such decision, however, he/she/it must present to the court arguments and evidences certifying that he/she/it were not able to present the rebuff due to important reasons. If all necessary evidence were not submitted at once, later the court might refuse to accept them, if it establishes that this evidence might be submitted earlier and if submitted know, they would delay the investigation of the case. The ground of the claim or the object of the claim may be changed only before the ruling of the court to fix the date for hearing of the case is adopted. The basis and the object of the claim may be changed later, only if became necessary later or the other party agrees with that, or if that, in the opinion of the court, would not delay the hearing of the case. The respondent may bring the counterclaim only before the day of case hearing is fixed.

      In order to better and more exhaustively prepare for the hearing of the case in court, or if the court sees that the peaceful settlement may be reached in the case, the preliminary court hearing may be fixed, where the parties may be investigated in order to finalize the content of their requests and responses, the decisions might be made in order to involve other parties to the process, or in order to request for the additional evidence.

      If both parties are represented by the advocates, or the parties are legal persons, the preparation for the case may be carried out in writing, i.e. by submitting the response of the claimant to the response to the claim of the respondent, and by submitting one more response by the respondent.

      

      Hearing at court

      

      The principle of oral hearing remains in the new code, however the possibility of the written proceedings is established. If both parties submit a written request or express their consent during the court hearing, the case may be investigated by the way of written proceedings.

      The possibilities for the parties to delay the proceedings by not showing themselves at court are limited essentially. Not showing of the party or its representative at court because of illness, holiday, business trip, involvement in other cases or other business and other similar cases are usually not treated as a valid reason for not coming to court. Such provisions are based on the face that each party has a right to plead its case through the representative; therefore they should use this right if they know that they will not be able to come to court hearings. The participation of the representative at the court without the representing party is considered as due participation of that party in court hearing.

      If the party does not come to court without a valid reason, the court may adopt a decision by default, to leave the claim unheard (if the claimant does not show up), or to hear the case without participation of the respondent.

      Before giving their oral explanations at court the parties to a case and third parties have to give an oath for giving true explanations. In case of breach of this oath the court may impose a fine up to one thousand Litas.

      

      The stamp duty

      

      In the new Code of Civil Procedure the stamp duty is reduced. In the property disputes the stamp duty is reduced up to 3 percent, moreover, the stamp duty is differentiated according to the size of the claim. From the sum of a claim, which exceeds 100 000 Litas, 2 percent must be paid, and the sum of a claim exceeding 300 000 Litas, 1 percent stamp duty must be paid. The maximum size of stamp duty in property disputes – 30 000 Litas. However, for the appellate and cassation appeal the stamp duty is increased. The stamp duty for an appeal in an appellate instance was equal to half of the sum paid for the claim and for an appeal in an cassation instance stamp duty was equal to half of the sum paid for the appellate appeal in the old Code. According to the new Code of Civil Procedure, for appellate as well as for cassation appeal stamp duty is of the same size that must be paid for the claim in the first instance. For the application, regarding the claim of non-property disputes, stamp duty of 100 Litas must be paid.

      

      Representation

      

      As of1 January 2003, only attorneys, attorneys’ assistants, as well as persons with high legal education (if the latter represent their close relatives or spouse (partner)) may act as representatives in civil cases. Other persons, who were representatives before 1 January 2003, may continue to represent their clients until expiration of their authorizations. Legal persons’ representatives may be their employees (in appellate and cassation instances only those who have high legal education), as well attorneys and attorneys’ assistants. Together with aforementioned, other persons – specialists of non-legal spheres (auditors, accountants, tax consultants and etc.) - may represent legal person. Provisions of the new Code of Civil Procedure allows for the winning party to recover actual expenses for attorney’s services, taking into account the complexity of the case, consumption of attorney’s time and expenditures, however, not greater than the ones, which are established in the recommendations approved by the Ministry of Justice and Lithuanian Bar Association.

      

      Delivering

      

      The new Code of Civil Procedure establishes new forms of delivering procedural documents – deliverance for representative, deliverance among attorneys, deliverance for an authorized representative – which will allow to reach greater procedure economy and assure more operative deliverance of procedural documents. If a person, participating in a case, has got a representative (attorney and etc.). all procedural documents shall be delivered to him. As the representative must inform the represented person about the course of a case, he must inform also about the received procedural documents. If both parties have indicated in the claim and rebuff to the claim that attorneys represent them, the attorneys will be responsible for delivering of procedural documents to the other party. They will be obliged to send the procedural documents directly to the court and directly to the attorney of the other party. It should be emphasized that this form of delivery is mandatory if attorneys represent both parties. In case there are a lot of persons on the side of claimant or respondent (e.g. bankruptcy proceedings) procedural documents are delivered to authorized representative of those persons.

      

      Examination peculiarities of cases of particular categories

      

      There are several new examination forms of cases of particular categories set in the new Code of Civil Procedure that expedite and make easier the litigation in the these categories of cases. It should be noted that stamp duty for examination of these cases is less than for the cases of general examination procedure. However it is worth to consider the possibility to request the court to examine the case according the procedure of cases of particular categories, because, in case there is a positive court decision to the claimant and the court establishes the fact that the claimant was able to request the simpler examination procedure of the case, the court will award only such amount of the stamp duty that should be paid for the examination of the case according to the particular procedure. The documentary procedure - is a new examination form of cases set in the new Code of civil procedure.

      This procedure should facilitate the litigation in those cases when there are submitted monetary claims (claims for the ad judgment of debts, remuneration, losses, alimentation etc.) based on the written evidences. It means that there will be no witnesses invited, nor material evidences submitted. The amount of the stamp duty, that should be paid when submitting the claim with a request for documentary examination of the case, is a half sum of the stamp duty, which is paid for the general procedure of case examination. In the case of documentary procedure the court only examines the arguments and evidences that were submitted by the claimant. Since it concludes the claim is reasonable, no later than within 14 days after the acceptance of the claim it passes the preliminary decision. Just after the moment preliminary decision has been passed the defendant is informed about the lawsuit commenced against him. The defendant has the right to submit the contradictions to the claim within 20 days after he reception of the preliminary decision. If he fails to do that or submitted contradictions are unmotivated the preliminary decision becomes valid and later no appellation or cassation complaints are allowed. In case the defendant submits the contradictions to the claim, the court starts examining the case according to the general procedure and passes the final decision. Another advantage of the documentary procedure is that the preliminary decision may be quashed and the stamp duty reimbursed to the claimant provided the defendant carries out the preliminary decision and submits to the court the respective documents that confirm those circumstances.

      The possibility to request for the court order remains in the new Code of Civil Procedure as well. The court order may be requested for monetary claims when there are no grounds to think that defendant could reasonably question the court order. Compared to the rules of the old Code, the dispensation procedure of the court order has changed. The court order shall be dispensed no later than other day after the acceptance of the request. The order together with the request are delivered to the debtor, which within 20 days after the delivery may submit reasonable contradictions regarding the claim. Since the contradictions are submitted, the court order is nullified and the creditor has the right within 20 days to apply to the court with a claim. The requests to dispense the court orders shall be prepared according to the model form, which was approved December 19, 2002 by the order of Minister of Justice No. 362. Using respective technical means should atomize the procedure of the dispensation of court orders in the future.

      The considerably more active role of the court is the main peculiarity and novelty in the examination of family, labor cases, which are recognized as cases having public interest. Upon its initiative the court is entitled to gather the evidences that parties are not basing on. Since the court establishes that the civil action has been brought against wrong person, it has the right to include the proper defendant to participate in the civil procedure. The court may transcend the requests of the claim (to award more than requested, adopt the decision regarding the requirements that were not written in the claim, but are directly related to the claim) and apply the alternative measures of defence.

      

      The execution of the courts’ decisions

      

      The procedure of the execution of courts’ decisions has also been reformed in order to assure more efficient execution of the decisions. The new Law on Bailiffs reforms the procedure of execution as well. The new legal acts that provides for the payment system reform for bailiffs, when the remuneration depends on the efficiency of the decision execution, encourages the bailiffs’ initiative and more efficient work performance. However there is established the control system in order to set certain limits for the initiative, according to which the documents drafted by a bailiff are verified by the County court judge. Several of the most important novelties are the ones mentioned below. In case the residence place of the debtor is unknown, but there is his/ her property left, recoverer has the right to request the County court, which is in the area of exaction, to appoint the tutor of the debtor. In the procedure of court decision execution the tutor of the debtor has the same rights as the debtor. Writs of execution may be submitted for execution within 10 years after the court decision became valid. According to the new Code of Civil Procedure the expenses of execution has increased. December 31, 2002 the Minister of Justice by the order No 432 approved the Instruction on the execution of decisions that established the amount, payment and exaction procedure of the expenses of the execution. A person that applies to the bailiff has to pay in advance the administration expenses of the case. The amount of the expenses is differentiated according to the category of the case. After the execution procedure is over the remuneration for the execution of the court decision shall be paid to the bailiff. The execution costs are exacted from the debtor.

      

      International civil procedure

      

      The new Code of Civil Procedure provides in essence new regulation when one of the litigation parties is the subject of foreign state or the object is related with the foreign state. Lithuanian court may hear such cases, when the defendant in the time of claim submission is in Lithuania or has a permanent residence in Lithuania or defendant has possession in Lithuania or the object of the claim is in Lithuania or the inheritance or the duty shall be performed in Lithuania. In case the person of the foreign country applies to the Lithuanian court, in request of the defendant, he has to pay the security in order to assure reimbursement of the litigation costs. The new Code establishes the regulation that Lithuanian courts shall recognize the courts’ decisions of the foreign countries even in the absence of the international treaty with the respective countries.