News

During his visit to Kiev (Ukraine) on 9_­–12 June, President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania Rimvydas Norkus met with judges of the Supreme Court of Ukraine, representatives of the media, and delivered a report on class action claims.

In his report, the President of the Lithuanian court of cassation reviewed the introduction and development of this legal institute in Lithuania, outlined the conditions for filing a collective action claim and discussed how a hearing of this type of claims is different from proceedings on ordinary claims.

President Norkus believes that this legal institute is important for the protection of public interest both in Ukraine and Lithuania. “Class action proceedings are more concise, effective and economical as this enables to deal in one case not with one but rather with several claims arising from similar factual circumstances and based on the same legal grounds. This provides individual aggrieved persons with a means to protect their violated rights and interests, to achieve positive social effect and, in addition, this makes it possible to save the assets allocated to courts, to use judicial time more effectively, and to ensure uniform court practice in respect to analogous claims”, emphasized the President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania addressing the Ukrainian judges.

The President identified another great advantage of class action in encouraging protection of a person’s rights, which would enable to avoid mass, however rational it may be, apathy in protecting one’s rights. “In addition, implementation of the legal institute of class action is likely to have preventive importance in deterring potential offenders from ‘minor’ violations of the rights of a larger number of people”, highlighted the President of the Supreme Court of Lithuania.

For more information see the website of the Supreme Court of Lithuania http://www.lat.lt. – please credit when citing or otherwise making use of data from this website.