How are the court decisions enforced?

How are the court decisions enforced?

Experts from Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine discussed how to increase debt recovery rates based on court decisions.

On May 28, a regular session of DanakerTalkuu was held in Bishkek, during which the local and international experience of enforcement agents was discussed. Nurlan Pirnazarov, the Head of the Department for the Enforcement of Judicial Acts, Valery Pritulyak, an expert from Ukraine, as well as Roman Tolmach and Oksana Novikova, experts from Moldova took part at the event.

According to Nurlan Pirnazarov, almost 60% of court decisions are enforced in Kyrgyzstan. These are mostly the decisions on demolition of illegal buildings, on removal of a child, on eviction, on reinstatement in office, etc.

Enforcement proceedings in Moldova

As Roman Tolmach noted, in Moldova the practice of private enforcement agents was introduced 9 years ago.

“In Moldova, unlike other neighboring states, there are private law enforcement agents only. What urged us to this reorganization? Low wages, non-reimbursement of travel costs and lack of motivation among judicial enforcement agents under the courts to work for the benefit of the state. The conditions have improved after the reform. A bailiff now has become an employer himself, he supervises his employees and pays income tax; creditors do not complain that court decisions are not enforced”, – says Roman Tolmach.

Ukraine’s experience

In Ukraine, there are both public and private enforcement agents. In 2018, in general, enforcement agents (both private and public) collected $176 million in alimony only.

“If the court decision is not enforced, such a decision is nothing but a seeming one. Therefore, bailiffs have a very important task to perform” – V. Pritulyak, Ph.D. in Law,  associate professor, private enforcement agent of the enforcement district of the Odessa region, head of the Ethics Committee of APIU, Ukraine .   

During the discussion, the experts also touched upon other topics and answered the audience’s questions.

International experts are currently located in Bishkek, where they conduct training for enforcement agents under the project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO) in partnership with the Judicial Department.

DanakerTalks is an independent platform promoting the dialogue on the rule of law, law and justice in Kyrgyzstan.

Kalyicha Dzhamankulova

Kyrgyz Bailiffs to Improve Service Quality

Kyrgyz Bailiffs to Improve Service Quality

In Kyrgyzstan, the strategy for the development of the bailiff service is being discussed through the introduction of an automated register of debtors, electronic trading and the implementation of an action plan. This was announced on October 9 at a round table organized by the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court of the Kyrgyz Republic with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the International Development Law Organization (IDLO).

According to Nurlan Pirnazarov, Head of the Department for the Enforcement of Judicial Acts, increasing confidence in bailiffs through enhancing human resources, increasing the number of bailiffs, wages and social security, their training and improving the infrastructure are important tasks of this performers.

In addition, attention is paid to the automation of processes to improve the performance of bailiffs. At the round table shared intermediate results of the pilot projects on the register of debtors and electronic trading.

“The system of electronic registration“ The Register of Debtors ”automates the process of entering data on the one hand, and on the other – will facilitate the access of citizens to information that the availability and amount of debt can find out via the Internet,” said Alexander Yuryev, director of the Information Technology Institution.

The event was held in the framework of the project “Enhancing the capacity of judicial executors of the Kyrgyz Republic” with the participation of the EBRD General Counsel Marie-Anne Birken and Fred Houston, Director of the IDLO branch in Kyrgyzstan. In addition to the main issues of the strategy, participants discussed topical issues on the application of the Criminal Code, the Code of Misconduct and the Code of violations in enforcement proceedings.

Recall that the bailiff is an official who enforces the execution of decisions of courts in civil cases, settlement agreements, sentences, rulings and decisions of courts in criminal cases in terms of property penalties.

[This content was automatically translated from the Russian language]

Kyrgyzstan-Ukraine Regional Exchange Builds Bailiff Capacity

Kyrgyzstan-Ukraine Regional Exchange Builds Bailiff Capacity

As with many emerging economies, non-enforcement of court decisions in the Kyrgyz Republic remains a challenge.

Despite the progress achieved by Kyrgyzstan’s judicial system in improving its commercial law capacity, there are lengthy delays in the process and unenforced judgments, particularly when it comes to debtors who hide assets and evade court orders. This can pose obstacles to investor confidence and inhibit economic growth and prosperity.

Strengthening court decision enforcement has become a focus of reform activities across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as many countries are facing similar challenges.

The effectiveness of bailiffs and other enforcement agents responsible for administering court decisions is being improved in Kyrgyzstan. This follows a 2016 analysis of the system that pointed to the need to build their skills as well as the need for legislative reform. In December 2017, the Kyrgyz Parliament adopted a law on the Status of Court Enforcement Agents and Enforcement Procedure.

“Kyrgyzstan is determined to improve the legislative base of the court enforcement, including the focus on a strategy for improvement of the court enforcement system, introduction of the electronic registries and building the capacity of the Court Department, which is entrusted with the control over the process of implementation of the court decisions,” said, Mr. Maksatbek Yesenaliyev, Deputy Minister of Justice of Kyrgyzstan.

To implement the new law and build a new generation of professional bailiffs, the Court Department is being supported by IDLO and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) who have been working together in Kyrgyzstan since 2005 to enhance the commercial law capacity of the justice system.

Exchange of experiences

As part of its recent project to build the capacity of Kyrgyz bailiffs, undertaken in partnership with EBRD, IDLO organized a visit to Kiev, Ukraine of justice sector professionals, including bailiffs, former judge-trainers and representatives of the Court Department, Ministry of Justice of Kyrgyzstan, High Justice Training Centre of Kyrgyzstan and Administration of the Supreme Court of Kyrgyzstan.

While the aim of the visit was to conduct a Training of Trainers program, the choice to hold the activity in Ukraine rendered the added benefit of fostering dialogue across borders and learning about diverse systems in the region.

“EBRD and IDLO organized this visit for the bailiffs and legal professionals from Kyrgyzstan to create an opportunity for a regional exchange and dissemination of best practices existing in the region. We are happy to bring together both countries, as they have so much in common in their legal and institutional traditions, and hope the exchange will be relevant and useful,” remarked EBRD’s Director of Legal Transitions Program, Mr. Michel Nussbaumer.

Ukraine recently instituted a mixed public-private system of bailiffs. In combination with the state enforcement service, the private bailiff service seen an increase in the efficiency and expediency of enforcing court decisions in the country.

“In the process of judicial reform, we brought changes to the constitution […] as well as introduced new legislation governing the enforcement of judicial decisions,” said Ms. Svitlana Gluschenko, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

“We introduced a mixed system of court enforcement bringing the private bailiff system to aid the process that was for years driven by the state enforcement agents. The reforms led to moving Ukraine 17 points in the Doing Business rating of the World Bank.”

Throughout the visit, the bailiffs and other enforcement agents from Kyrgyzstan met Ukrainian professionals involved in the process of court enforcement on the executive and legislative side. Experiences from Moldova – where the bailiff system has been completely privatized – were also shared.

This multi-country perspective allowed Kyrgyz participants to examine various models of bailiff systems implemented by countries experiencing similar challenges. The visit presented a rounded view of success stories and shortcomings, and mechanisms that can be advanced – notably the introduction of an electronic system to track assets, which will be relevant to the Kyrgyz judiciary’s work in the years to come.

“For me the most valuable moment was to see and learn about the Automated Unified Database to register debtors,” commented one Kyrgyz participant. “For the first time in 8-10 years of work, I visited a department where virtually all the work is done electronically, namely electronic access to information about the debtor’s property.”

Echoing the level of value experienced from the visit, another Kyrgyz participant added, “The program was very intense, with almost 12 experts who covered different topics.” He continued: “These experiences need to be adopted in our country.”

As outlined in IDLO’s Strategic Plan 2017 – 2020, the work in Kyrgyzstan reflects one of IDLO’s primary goals to ensure that “laws and policies are fair and institutions are effective, accessible and accountable.” Specifically, IDLO’s core strategic aims are to strengthen the capacity of institutions to uphold justice, and also to support legal and judicial actors to promote economic opportunity and sustainability. As IDLO implements recommendations emerging from the analysis, lessons from the regional exchange can continue to infuse new perspective on solutions and potential opportunities for reform in Kyrgyzstan.

IDLO