Minister of Justice R. Mockus: “We will improve the enforcement process in order to balance the interests of creditors and debtors”

Minister of Justice Rimantas Mockus

On April 29, after greeting the participants of the Judicial Officers’ Assembly, Minister of Justice Rimantas Mockus thanked the community of judicial officers for their significant role in helping to enforce court decisions and strengthening the public’s trust in the state’s legal system.

At the same time, the Minister expressed his readiness to improve the enforcement process so that the interests of both creditors and debtors would be balanced, and the administrative burden on both the participants of the process and Judicial officers would be reduced.

I want to emphasize that we hear your (judicial officers’) and part of the public’s criticism regarding the current legal regulation and the exclusive support given to one party in the process, that is, the debtor, said Minister R. Mockus.

He acknowledged that 2024, in terms of judicial officers’ activities, was a year of reforms when, after the entry into force of the new legal regulation and under the pretext of a social aspect, creditors were further distanced from justice, allowing the debtor to go “on vacation.” As the Minister assured, such legal regulation is unacceptable to him, as in the effort to satisfy debtors, even children’s rights were forgotten by allowing the debtor to stop paying child support for half a year. The Minister reminded that, on the initiative of the Ministry of Justice, legislative amendments were prepared and are currently being coordinated, according to which debtor “vacations” would not apply when enforcing child support, as well as compensation for damage caused by injury or loss of a provider’s life.

Chairman of the Presidium of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Lithuania, judicial officer I. Gaidelis

The Chairman of the Presidium of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Lithuania, judicial officer I. Gaidelis, expressed satisfaction that the Ministry of Justice listens to the proposals of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Lithuania on how to simplify debt recovery processes and ease the situation of debtors without causing losses to creditors, as well as reduce bureaucracy in the enforcement process.

“It is somewhat encouraging that legal scholars and finance experts are beginning to take a more active interest in the topics of legal regulation of enforcement and the balance of interests of the parties to the process. If this interest eventually turns into relevant scientific research, lawmakers will also have more motivation to return to the true purpose of the enforcement process,” emphasized the head of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Lithuania, I. Gaidelis.

During the Judicial Officers’ Assembly, the composition of the self-governance bodies of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Lithuania was partially renewed. The former representative of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Lithuania in the Vilnius region, Judicial officer Asta Stanišauskaitė, replaced the resigning member of the Presidium, Rima Gražienė. Judicial officer Dalius Traigys was elected as the new representative of the Chamber of Judicial Officers of Lithuania in the Vilnius region. Judicial officer Tomas Ubartas was elected as a member of the Audit Commission to replace Judicial officer Nijolė Genutienė, who retired.

Currently, there are 107 judicial officers working in Lithuania, of whom 59 are women and 48 are men. There are 94 judicial officers’ offices and 6 branches of judicial officers’ offices.

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