Courts will be authorised to leave cases without consideration if parties fail to show up after first summoning

Courts will be able to leave cases without consideration if the parties will not appear in court after the first summoning and will not request the examination of the case in their absence. Parliament passed in first reading amendments to the Code of Civil Procedure to this effect, on Thursday, arousing criticism among the Opposition. At present, the courts can leave the requests without consideration in the case if the parties do not appear in court only after the second summoning. As the Ministry of Justice puts it, the amendment will make the summoned parties more punctual and organised. At the moment more than 30% of the cases are pending because of this problem. MP Vladimir Filat stated that it is the judicial system which has to be disciplined first, because the process of summoning the parties suffers from serious shortcomings. According to Filat, the amendment will allow interested persons to leave without consideration certain cases. Another amendment proposed by the Ministry of Justice and disapproved by some MPs, provides that the examination of the request for challenging the judge or his declaration of abstention will be made “usually on the same day” instead of the present “immediately”. MP Ion Plesca stated that the modification will create new possibilities for the courts to delay certain cases. Deputy Minister of Justice Elena Mocanu explained that the current wording creates inconveniences to the courts because sometimes it is impossible to convene immediately a panel to decide upon the challenging request. The MPs voted for the amendments in first reading but announced that they will request their exclusion while debating it for the second time.