Recent significant developments in the judicial field in Lithuania since June 2016

1.     On 11 October 2016 the Seimas adopted the Concept Paper on Lay Judges prepared by the special working group established by the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Lithuania. This Concept Paper proposes to introduce the institution of lay judges in the Lithuanian court system in order to increase the trust of the society in the courts’ system, to further promote the transparency of the courts’ activities and to boost legal education. According to the Concept Paper, lay judges would hear the cases in the courts of first instance together with regular judges. Lay judges would participate only in oral hearing of a case. The Concept Paper proposes the concrete list of categories of civil, criminal and administrative cases where lay judges could be appointed to fulfill their public duty. It is foreseen that lay judges could be appointed either on voluntary basis or on the basis of random selection. The Concept Paper contains provisions on the main requirements for lay judges, their selection procedure, compilation of the lay judges’ list, the role of lay judges, their procedural rights and obligations, guarantees, liability etc.  The Constitution and other laws will have to be amended in order to implement its provisions.

2.     On 23 June 2016 the Seimas adopted the laws concerning reorganization of the courts of general and special (administrative) jurisdiction, the laws will come into force on 1 January 2018 (on 22 December 2015 the Seimas adopted the decision on initiating the procedure of reorganization of the courts). Courts will be consolidated, the number of courts of general jurisdiction will be reduced from 49 to 12, the number of regional administrative courts will be reduced from 5 to 2, and instead of some courts separate divisions of courts will be established. It is expected that workload of courts will be equalized, access to justice will be improved and cases will be heard more speedily.

3.     On November 18, 2016 the Seimas adopted amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure.   The amendments contain the following provisions:

- improving the rules on

·      defending public interest in civil proceedings;

·      representation in civil proceedings;

·      hearing public procurement cases;

·      sanctions against the abuse of procedural rights;

·      issuing court decisions in absence of claimant or defendant

- modifying the rules on court fees (in certain cases it is proposed to increase a court fee, in certain cases – to decrease it, aiming at proper balance);

- introducing the court decision on the ground of the claim into the civil procedure, etc.

4.     The new wording of the Law of the Administrative proceeding came into force from 1 July, 2016. The essential amendments cover:

-          The longer procedural time limits. E.g. the term of one month instead of 14 days was set for lodging the appeal to the Supreme adminsitrative court of Lithuania.

-          The representation and litigation expenses. E.g. a party of a dispute shall have right for reimbursement of expenses for services provided lawyer or lawyer’s assistants. The expenses for the services by other specialists shall be reimbursed in case they are not related to legal service. The aim of such amendments is to ensure that only the qualified legal assistance is provided to the parties of the dispute.

-          The model court process was introduced to the administrative procedural law. In case there are more 20 disputes that are similar by their legal and factual background, and these are the disputes on consequences related to the lawfulness of the legal acts, one case (a model case) shall be heard first and other cases shall be suspended in the meantime and shall be renewed only when a decision in a model case becomes final.  The renewed cases may be heard under simplified procedure.

-          Some other amendments, e.g., the duty of the court to take all the necessary measures to resolve the case in a proper manner and reasonable time was explicitly stipulated; the number of types of cases heard exceptionally by Vilnius regional administrative court was decreased.

Laima Garneliene

Judge of the Court of Appeal

of Lithuania