Greece: Compulsory mediation restricts access to justice
Managing IP is part of the Delinian Group, Delinian Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX, Registered in England & Wales, Company number 00954730
Copyright © Delinian Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Greece: Compulsory mediation restricts access to justice

In early 2018, a radical change to civil procedure was introduced as a result of Law 4512/2018. The change relates to compulsory mediation as an obligatory pre-trial stage for certain civil and commercial disputes. IP-related cases are included in these. Thus, before the filing of any IP-related main action lawsuit, the claimant must follow the designated mediation process, so that there is no procedural impediment to the trial. These legal provisions were scheduled to apply to any main action lawsuits filed from October 17 2018.

Criticism was voiced against these provisions. Critics noted that the mandatory nature of the mediation contradicts the fundamental right of access to justice. In relation to access to justice, objections also arose regarding compulsory mediation costs, as well as the fact that the mediator who is appointed should not necessarily be a lawyer. In light of this criticism, the Plenary of the Greek Bar Associations filed a request before the Greek Supreme Court in order to decide on the constitutionality of the compulsory mediation provisions.

In its Decision No. 34/2018, the Plenary of the Greek Supreme Court ruled by majority that the compulsory mediation provisions contradict the Greek Constitution (Article 20.1), the European Convention on Human Rights (Articles 6.1 and 13) and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Article 47), namely by restricting the fundamental right of access to justice.

In view of the above, and as a result of a recently filed amendment to the Law, the application of compulsory mediation has been suspended until September 16 2019 in order for the above provisions to be in accordance with the decision of the Plenary of the Greek Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see whether, in the meantime, mandatory mediation for IP-related cases is eliminated.

panagopoulos.jpg

Georgios Panagopoulos

Patrinos & Kilimiris

7, Hatziyianni Mexi Str.

GR-11528 Athens

Greece

Tel: +30210 7222906, 7222050

Fax: +30210 7222889

info@patrinoskilimiris.com

www.patrinoskilimiris.com

more from across site and ros bottom lb

More from across our site

As Australia’s Qantm IP leans towards being acquired by a private equity company, sources discuss what it could mean for IP firms
Law firms that are conscious of their role in society are more likely to win work, according to a survey of over 23,000 in-house professionals
Pham Nghiem Xuan Bac, managing partner of Vision & Associates, discusses opportunities created by the US-China rift as well as profitability issues facing IP practices
Douglas Leite and two of his colleagues were intrigued by Bhering Advogados’s mission to grow its patent litigation practice
Each week Managing IP speaks to a different IP practitioner about their life and career
Counsel explain how pricing flexibility, patent agents and being business partners can help them maintain profitable patent prosecution practices
We provide a rundown of Managing IP’s news and analysis from the week, and review what’s been happening elsewhere in IP
Speakers at an INTA event weighed in on why firms should create AI use policies and how they stay on top of the latest developments
The England and Wales Court of Appeal backed Lidl in its trademark dispute with Tesco, but we should pay more attention to how we rule on first-instance decisions
Richard Kempner, partner at Haseltine Lake Kempner, discusses the ‘remarkable’ comments from judges, despite the court finding against his client Tesco on the bulk of issues
Gift this article