July 2015
Law Alert
Amendments of the Greek Civil Procedure Code, Law 4335/2015
Important amendments to the provisions of Civil Procedure Code will come into effect from 01.01.2016 onwards by virtue of Law 4335/2015. The relevant amendments cover approximately the whole scope of Civil Procedure Code, so as to constitute a radical reformation of the procedural framework aiming at the acceleration of granting justice on the basis of the principle of the economy of the proceedings. The basic scope of changes attempted through the new provisions relates to the ordinary proceedings before the Courts of First Instance as well as to the compulsory enforcement procedure where the greatest delays are observed. However, it should be noted that important changes are also effected to other chapters of the Civil Procedure Code, such as to special proceedings and interim measures, where restoration was considered necessary. A brief presentation of the most important changes related to the court proceedings and the compulsory enforcement for the satisfaction of monetary claims follows right below.
(a) Ordinary proceedings before the Courts of First Instance In the context of the intended accelerated process of administration of judicial cases, the partially oral hearing process undertaken so far in the ordinary proceedings before the Courts of First Instance is replaced by a written procedure. The written procedure now takes precedence over the oral one, especially on the grounds of the limitation of the possibility to examine witnesses before the Courts of First Instance. In the exceptional case that the Court considers that the case has
not been sufficiently clear so as to proceed to the issuance of the decision and considers that there is special reason for the examination of witnesses, the Court may issue an act for summoning witnesses. Moreover, starting from the date of exercise of the lawsuit certain deadlines are set within which the foreseen procedures should have been concluded, in order to take advantage of the time period intervening between the lawsuit and the hearing of the case, contrary to the practice followed until now. In this context, the briefs are submitted within a term of 100 or 130 days (depending on the case) from the submission of the lawsuit and the additional pleadings within the following fifteen days from the expiry of the above deadline. With the lapse of the said deadline the file of the case is considered closed. Within a term of fifteen days starting from the date that the file is closed the judge or the court composition is appointed, while at the same time a hearing for the discussion of the case is determined for at a time period no longer than thirty days. It should be noted that at the said hearing no witnesses are examined and the case may be discussed without the presence of the parties or their attorneys. The examination of witnesses shall take place in the event that this is considered absolutely necessary following the study of the file. In such a case, the repetition of the hearing is ordered and following the end of the testimonies, the repetition of the hearing is considered concluded. The evaluation of the testimonies shall be conducted within a term of eight (8) working days.
Interventions, third-party notices, notices and counter-lawsuits are submitted and served to all parties within a term of sixty or ninety days (depending on the case) starting from the submission of the lawsuit, with the exception of the intervention following a third-party notice or notice submitted and served within a term of ninety days from the submission of the lawsuit.
(b) Special proceedings – amendments to payment order Special proceedings are now systemized to three basic categories (disputes arising out of family matters, property disputes, payment order) and the number of the respective provisions is radically limited. The third category relates to amendments to payment orders and particularly regarding matters pertaining to their issuance, jurisdictional matters, enhancement as per the possibility of common judicial proceedings of the opposition against the payment order and of the opposition against compulsory enforcement. In this regard, impediments as per the issuance of a payment order against foreign residents or persons with unknown address, but who have an appointed agent for service are lifted and the subjectmatter jurisdiction of the Multi member Court of First Instance regarding the judgment for the opposition against the payment order is restored. Finally, the possibility of accumulation of the opposition against the payment order with the opposition against compulsory enforcement to the same document is provided, so as to avoid simultaneous proceedings for the same claim and the same enforceable title (payment order).
(c) Compulsory enforcement Important changes were also effected to the Code of Civil Procedure with regard to compulsory enforcement law under two directions, on the one hand through the limitation of the number of legal recourses that may be exercised during the conduct of compulsory enforcement actions, while on the other hand through the limitation of the time required for the completion of the actual materialization of the enforceable titles. The application of a system of opposition to defects of the compulsory enforcement – if any – in two stages was elected: the first one takes place before the auction and includes all reasons of invalidity and the second one is detected after the auction and it includes the possibility of the exercise of an opposition for all complaints related to possible defects, which were penetrated from the act of auction until the awarding. The amendments related to the ranking of creditors at the distribution of the auction price and the preferential treatment of the secured in rem creditors are also of significant importance. In particular: Changes regarding the structure of the ranking of creditors with general privileges come into effect. According to new provisions, the claims of the State arising out of value added tax (VAT) and withholding taxes together with surcharges of any nature and the interests that burden such claims are ranked to the third place of the general privileges in the same position with the claims of the employees. Moreover, the State and the municipalities are ranked in the fifth place for claims arising out of any cause with the surcharges of any nature and the interests that burden those claims and without the existence of time limit for the calculation. Furthermore, the ranking of creditors in cases of concurrence of general and special privileges is altered, in terms of adoption of a preferential treatment in favor of creditors with a special privilege (i.e. pledge, mortgage) on assets at the amount of sixty five per cent (65%) of the auction price. In practice this means that the percentage of satisfaction of Banks is broadened to sixty five per cent (65%), granting to them a significant advantage to the distribution of the auction price, versus creditors with a general privilege whose percentage of satisfaction shrinks to twenty five (25%) per cent. Finally, an amount of ten (10%) per cent for distribution is now fortified to creditors that have no privileges at all. This way, non-privileged creditors are encouraged to opt for compulsory enforcement proceedings.
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| Law Alert − July 2015
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