CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF A CASE PREPARATORY STAGE IN CIVIL LITIGATION IN THE SCOPE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC SITUATION.

Abstract

Abstract.
The current worldwide Covid-19 pandemic situation shows to people that the pandemic
situation has had more negative and long-lasting consequences than it has been expected or
thought ever. Civil litigation is not an exemption. Therefore, on the one hand, we have very
complicated problems, but from another hand, we have life and procedures which should
be continued and solved anyway. The author’s research object is the efficiency of the civil
procedures and their improvement. This article devoted to the civil case preparatory stage
and its growing importance in the scope of the pandemic situation. As shown in the practical
life of the pandemic situation, the judge has the right to decide about the case hearing in a
written manner or postpone the case hearing (oral process) till the end of the pandemic or
its weakened. The case hearing in a written manner is not some newest but in this manner,
the parties could lose some evidential abilties - for example, eye-witness evidence. In the
Latvian Civil procedural law, the written eye-witness evidence is not prescribed. The eyewitness
written confirmation of his/her knowledge about the disputed case could be used
during the preparatory stage of civil litigation to accept or decline to hear the eye-witness. In
such manner, the litigants could timely make decisions about their procedural position. For
this article, the author uses scientific works, analysis of the laws, government prescriptions
about pandemic restrictions, practical materials of the civil cases.