Filenews 25 August 2023
The adjudication of civil actions in the courts is completely changed, with the implementation in a week of the new rules of civil procedure approved by the Supreme Court.
The adjudication of a lawsuit is one of the most time-consuming procedures in Cypriot courts and takes between 7-10 years to complete. It is for this reason that there are a backlog of 42,000 cases pending, with those affected waiting years to find their law from a financial dispute, or because they have to get from the state and do not find them out of court.
At the moment, as the president of the Cyprus Bar Association, Christos Clerides, explained to "F", the regulations established in the 1950s are applied. The new regulations were drafted with the help of Lord Dyson, who came to Cyprus and made suggestions to change things and put the first instance judiciary in new gear. Before they were made public, the Supreme Court consulted with judges and lawyers.
As Mr. Clerides pointed out, there are some reactions from lawyers because the regulations are complex and they were not given sufficient time to familiarize themselves with them, but the Supreme Court clarified that no extension will be given and that they will apply from September 1.
The new regulations concern how a claim is registered and then adjudicated and are identical to those applied in England. The purpose of introducing the new regulations is to speed up procedures and at the same time the burden of initiatives on how to proceed with a case to be passed on to the judges and removed from the hands of lawyers, as has been the case until now. In this way, there will be no constant postponement of the trial of a case.
The parties, as the President of the Advocates explains, must make a final attempt at an out-of-court settlement before filing an action which most often claims damages or sums required by acts or transactions.
It is also provided that from the time a lawsuit begins, it will be completed in a short period of time, since the court will be responsible for setting continuous dates and not as it is done now after 2-3 months or more. In fact, it is foreseen that by the beginning of the hearing of a lawsuit, everything will be ready and no time will be given for defense entries or other relevant documents, so as to save time.
The Cyprus Bar Association has already started webinars for its members to learn about the new rules of civil procedure, while on September 7 a conference will be organized in which judges and lawyers from Britain will speak.
