Justice Minister George Florides described it as a tragic fact that final decisions were issued by Greek courts in 1,500 days and now with the new provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure will be issued in 650 days.

Innovative provisions are included in the new Code of Civil Procedure presented today by Justice Minister Giorgos Florides and Deputy Justice Minister Ioannis Bougas, with the ultimate aim of significantly reducing the time it takes to issue court decisions, in an effort to bring the issuing time up to European levels.

The implementation of the new provisions of the CCP will start with the new judicial year (16 September 2025) and will apply to all lawsuits etc. filed in the new judicial year, while pending cases will be heard under the current CCP.

In particular, the new provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, as analyzed by Mr. Bougas, implement a series of targeted interventions, which are expected to serve as an institutional tool to reduce the time for the issuance of final and conclusive judgments.

This legislative initiative is part of the roadmap announced by the Ministry of Justice during the adoption of the Judicial Charter, aiming to maximize the benefits of its implementation and its complementary operation with other bills of the Ministry of Justice, such as the transfer of judicial material to lawyers under Law 5095/2024.

Specifically, the goal is for Greece to achieve the average of the Council of Europe countries, from 1,492 days for the issuance of a final decision currently required, to one year (about 350 days) for the issuance of a final decision and two years (about 650 days) for the issuance of a final decision.

For this reason, the reform of the Code of Civil Procedure concerns all procedural stages, from the filing of the opening brief at first instance to the issuance of a final (and subsequently irrevocable) judgment.

As an illustrative example, it was mentioned that under the current circumstances, in the Athens Court of First Instance, a case is heard after 3 years from the filing of the lawsuit and the decision is issued after months. Overall, on average, in the Athens Court of First Instance, it takes 3 to 4 years for a final decision to be issued, “which is not in line with the citizens’ demand for quick and effective justice”, Mr Florides stressed.

However, with the implementation of the new CPC, final decisions will be issued within:

– Within 6 months the decisions of ordinary proceedings,

– in 4 months for judgments in voluntary proceedings and

– in one month for decisions on interim measures.

Procedure

One of the innovative proposals of the new CCP is the establishment of exclusive and binding time limits for both parties on both sides and for the judges who charge the cases

The new provisions also attempt to make use of “pre-trial time,” which currently expires without any meaningful action. The regulation aimed at limiting and properly utilizing the time of pre-trial is that of the new Article 237 of the CCP.

Article 237 of the CCP establishes for the first time the preliminary examination of the action by the judge, who, if he finds any deficiencies or defects in the case file, issues an order declaring the action inadmissible or indefinite and sets a specific deadline for the party to correct or complete it, if possible. If that time-limit expires without that period having expired, the order shall be confirmed, the proceedings shall be closed and the case shall be removed from the register. The result of this procedure is the elimination of any rehearing, since any omission or defect in the action may have been completed or corrected by the party prior to the hearing, by virtue of the said order issued by the judge.

In other words, the new provisions drastically reduce the pre-trial period (Article 237 of the CCP), i.e. the time between the filing of the lawsuit and its discussion in the hearing, and also the time from the day of the discussion until the issuance of the court decision for which, until now, the parties and lawyers have been waiting for years in their hearing room.

In other words, the time before each case is heard in the courtroom is utilized to the fullest extent, with thorough pre-screening by a judge, so that cases are brought to the courtroom ripe for hearing.

Under the current standards for the hearing of a civil case, the initial file is closed after about 130 days and then 2.5 to 3 years can pass without any judicial action being taken and of course without the case reaching the hearing.

Where appeals will be filed

Another innovation brought about by the new CCP is that it “breaks” the decades-long procedural establishment where appeals against decisions issued are filed in the court that issued the decision.

In other words, under the current procedural framework, when the Court of First Instance issues a judgment and the losing party appeals and the appeal is filed with the Court of First Instance that issued the judgment being appealed.

Then, after some months, the appeal is serviceably forwarded to the Court of Appeal along with all the case file that has been formed. There the registry identifies the Division to which the case will be forwarded and after some months the President of the Division will set a date for the case to be heard in the hearing after several months or years.

That is, in addition to the burden on the court registries, there is a long bureaucratic period until the case (file) is transmitted from the Court of First Instance to the Court of Appeal, while the appointment of the hearing of the appeal is made after some years.

Now the new provision does the obvious. The filing of appeals from the initial decisions will not be filed in the Court of First Instance that issued the decision, but will be filed in the Court of Appeal that will hear the appeal, thus resetting the time taken to hear cases in the Court of Appeal and reducing the amount of the dunks of briefs that form in the court registries.

Dockets

According to another amendment to the CCC, wills and the declaration of a will as a principal (as well as the issuance of the relevant certificates, which today are excessively delayed due to the judicial process) will now be done by notaries within a week i.e., from 1 to 7 days, whereas today at least 300 days are required, while sealing and unsealing are transferred as responsibilities from notaries to bailiffs, as the most competent ones.

Documentation

A key innovation of the provisions of the new CCP is the creation of an electronic platform in order to operate the mechanism of the digital case file. This platform is already being “set up” in cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Digital Governance.

The implementation of the digital case file will start in 2025 and will first be connected to the Land Registry Offices.

The digital docket, completely eliminates paper, as lawyers from their offices will now file lawsuits and the other eleven instruments electronically, and will be able to follow the progress of each case from the filing of the lawsuit in the Court of First Instance, later in the Court of Appeal, until the final decision is issued by the Supreme Court.

Thus, instead of running to the court registries and filing powers of attorney, contracts and any other documents necessary for themselves, now from their office, lawyers will electronically carry out their pleadings, lawsuits, motions and other legal remedies in the digital case file.

Using the passwords they have received, lawyers will be able to access the documents in the case file at any time and conduct procedural actions online.

All court decisions, all evidentiary documents, all witness statements and any other evidence relating to the case will remain permanently stored in the digital case file.

The platform will also facilitate the electronic payment of the court fees required for the filing of documents, while it will provide the possibility of issuing copies of the Book of Offences and Incidents of the Hellenic Police through an electronic application.

Katseli Law

The digital case file will be instrumental in discharging the thousands of pending cases on the Katseli Law (Law 3869/2010) for over-indebted households with red loans that have been passed on to servicers (aka funds).

The leadership of the Ministry of Justice estimates that with the operation of the digital case file, the more than 32,000 pending cases in the courts of first instance for the implementation of the Katseli Law will be cleared and decisions will have been issued within the next three years.

Transfer of court files

As part of a drive to decongest the judges and courts, the Justice Ministry leadership is again moving forward with a new transfer of court material to lawyers and notaries.

New court matter will again be transferred to lawyers and in particular the issuing of payment orders will be transferred. A payment order is not a court decision, but an “act” of the judge and is issued without any proceedings in the hearing. A payment order concerns claims for money or claims on securities e.g. cheques, bills of exchange, promissory notes, etc.

Notaries are passed on to the notaries for the publication of wills. Currently, it takes at least one to one and a half years to publish a will in Athens, while a minimum of five months is required to issue a certificate of non-publication of a will.

It should be noted that due to the long delays in the publication of wills, on the one hand, huge assets with a very large financial object are at stake, on the other hand, hundreds of millions of euros from inheritance taxes, etc.

Reduction of pre-trial time

One of the innovative proposals of the new CCP is the introduction of exclusive and binding deadlines for both parties on both sides, as well as for the judges who charge the cases.

The new provisions drastically reduce the pre-trial period (Article 237 of the CCP), i.e. the time between the filing of the lawsuit and its discussion in the hearing, and the time from the day of the discussion to the issuance of the court decision for which the parties and lawyers have been waiting for years in their hearing room until now.

In other words, the time before each case is heard in the courtroom is being utilized to the fullest extent, with thorough pre-screening by a judge, so that cases are brought to the courtroom ripe for hearing.

Under the current standards for the hearing of a civil case, the initial file is closed after about 130 days and then 2.5 to 3 years can pass without any judicial action being taken and of course without the case reaching the hearing.

Lawyers’ Code

As mentioned by the Deputy Minister of Justice, the legislative initiatives for the coming period include key changes to the Lawyers’ Code. For this reason, the President of the Plenary of the Presidents of the Bar Associations Dimitris Vervesos and the President of the Union of Judges and Prosecutors Christoforos Sevastidis have been invited to the Ministry of Justice.