(ALFG) organizes working roundtable with lawyers at “Tbilisi Marriott Hotel”, in order to discuss draft amendments to the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia

OnApril 7, 2015, 14p.m.Association of Law Firms of Georgia (ALFG) organizes working roundtable with lawyers at “Tbilisi Marriott Hotel”, in order to discuss draft amendments to the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia.

Lawyers of ALFG member firms have been working on the amendments to the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia since October, 2014. Professor Rory Bahadur from Washburn University (USA), invited by the National Center on Commercial Law at Free University of Tbilisi,provided his feedback and remarks tothe proposed amendments.

These amendments were initiatedwith a view to ensure adversarial nature of the process between the disputing parties. In order to implement proceduralefficiency principle in practice,provisions related to party explanations, witness questioning and appointment of expertshave been redraftedwith better formulation. The draft also proposes introduction of temporary and primary security measures modelled on the US Civil Procedural Code. Members of the Association consider that, apart from the party and his/her family members, only qualifiedattorneys should have the right to represent parties in the courts of first instance. In addition, Association members consider that in circumstances when the party and his/her attorney appear at a hearing and a party confirms that the accompanying lawyer is his representative authorized to defends his/her interests, this statement should suffice for the judge to approve party’s will and the fact of having a lawyer; theparty should not need to present a notarized power of attorney to the court in this case.Amendments also specify lawyer’s fees, default judgement cases, renewal of court proceedings and refineprovisions related tomediation and court settlement.

In order to discuss draft amendments, ALFG held a meeting with judges on March 24, 2015. During the roundtable, ALFG took special note of a number of key recommendations made by the judges and based on the input ALFG will present the revised draft to a wider group of lawyers. Next step will be presenting the draft to the Ministry of Justice Private Law Reform Advisory Council sub-group working on procedural matters.

The process of working on amendments to the Civil Procedural Code is supported by the USAID funded Judicial Independence and Legal Empowerment Project (JILEP) implemented by East-West Management Institute (EWMI).