ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile and Alina Tugearu, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
Each party in a trial is responsible for submitting evi- dence in favour of their claims or as a defence to the opposing party’s claims. As a rule, the plaintiff pre- sents their proposal regarding the evidence in their claim, while the defendant indicates it in their state- ment of defence, under the sanction that they may be unable to propose further evidence. As an excep- tion, additional pieces of evidence may be submitted during the trial if there is a need for such submission resulting from the debates, or if the interested party was unable to propose the evidence within the legal term for justified reasons. In order for a piece of evidence to be admissible, the following elements must be proven by the party requesting the evidence, regardless of its type. The evidence must be: • legal (in accordance with material and procedural law); • plausible (realistic, in accordance with the laws of nature); • pertinent (in connection with the object of the trial); and • conclusive for the litigation (regarding elements that may lead to a solution of the trial). 7.5 Expert Testimony Expert testimony is a common type of evidence in civil trials, administered following either a party’s request or the court’s order. An expert report is usually pre- sented in written form, but it is also possible for the court to hear the appointed expert during the court hearing and record their statement. Experts are appointed by the court, and must be impartial professionals. The court may grant each party the assistance of a counsel expert, who will owe their duties to the party and guard that party’s interests. In complex cases, the court may appoint an expert committee consisting of three experts. 7.6 Extent to Which Hearings Are Open to the Public As a rule, court hearings are held in public sessions. In particular cases, the law provides that some types
of claims are to be settled only in the presence of the parties. In addition, following a well-grounded request from a party, the court itself may instruct that hearings are only held in the presence of the parties. 7.7 Level of Intervention by a Judge Judges carry out an inquisitorial role, participating actively in the investigation and addressing questions to the parties, deciding whether additional evidence is necessary, as well as invoking procedural incidents, etc. The judge is also responsible for leading the hear- ings. Usually, the court will settle issues such as jurisdiction, the admission of evidence and procedural incidents during the hearing. Sometimes, however, if the dis- cussed issue is the subject of strong debate between the parties, the judge may postpone the issuing of a solution until in chambers. In practice, as a rule, judges issue the solution in their chambers and not in public session. The judge might postpone the issuance of the solution several times. 7.8 General Timeframes for Proceedings Under the general rules of civil procedure, civil pro- ceedings start with an extended exchange of written submissions prior to the setting of the first court hear- ing, a novelty introduced by the New Civil Procedure Code. After the registration of the claim, the court ensures that all the procedural requirements of the claim are met. If this is not the case, the claimant is given a ten-day term to comply with the law. After the claim has fulfilled all formal conditions, the court proceeds to communicate the claim to the defendant, who is granted a term of 25 days to submit their statement of defence. The statement of defence is then communicated to the claimant, who may sub- mit an answer within ten days following its receipt. The written submission phase is followed by the oral phase, which is comprised of judicial inquiry and debates. Therefore, within three days of the submis- sion of the answer to the statement of defence, the judge establishes the first court hearing, which will be no later than 60 days from this date.
961 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook