LIECHTENSTEIN Law and Practice Contributed by: Matthias Niedermüller, Alexander Milionis and Fabian Rischka, Niedermüller Attorneys-at-Law
Joining Criminal Proceedings as Private Participants Further, anyone whose rights have been dam - aged by an offence under investigation – and, thus, derive from the criminal offence under investigation – may join the criminal proceed - ings as a private party by declaration of joinder. In simple cases, the criminal court may also ren - der a decision granting compensation for the civil claims in connection with a conviction of the offender and spare the victim a civil proceeding. This, however, is rarely the case. Interplay Between Civil and Criminal Proceedings Civil and criminal proceedings often run in paral - lel to each other. Nonetheless, there are strong interconnections that may be utilised to the ben - efit of the client. The declaration of joinder of a civil damaged party in the criminal proceeding interrupts the limitation period of civil claims against the sus - pect that derive from the criminal offence under investigation. However, there is no interruption of claims against persons or entities that are not suspects in the proceeding. There are often good reasons to initiate civil proceedings in parallel – in particular, to obtain injunctions against assets of suspects who pro - vide priority pledge prior to all other creditors and also prior to criminal freeze orders. Civil pro - ceedings are regularly suspended (interrupted) until the criminal investigations are concluded. In cases where the facts are already clear enough to judge on the civil law questions independently of the outcome of the investigations, civil pro - ceedings run in parallel.
In any event, the results of criminal investiga - tions conducted – in particular, the results of seizures and house searches – often provide valuable evidence for the damaged party of the criminal offence. In this regard, it is worth not - ing that neither criminal nor civil procedural laws provide for prohibition of the use of documents and information that a damaged party obtained in the course of an inspection of criminal files. 2.6 Judgment Without Trial In civil proceedings, the court must duly sum - mon the parties to a hearing. A judgment without hearing the defendant is, therefore, only possible if a party fails to participate in the proceedings by their own decision or fault. Upon application of the claimant, the court ren - ders a default judgment if the defendant fails to appear at a court hearing to which the defendant is summoned correctly. Such default judgment is then based on the content of the statements of the claimant alone (Articles 396 et seq of the Civil Procedure Code) ( Versäumungsurteil ). Further, the law provides for a fast-track pro - ceeding for payment orders ( Schuldentriebver - fahren ). Upon application, the court issues a payment order without a hearing and based only on the allegations of the claimant. The defendant may nullify the payment order by simply oppos - ing it, without reasons, within 14 days. Thereaf - ter, the claimant is required to initiate a regular civil proceeding or – if the claimant has strong evidence by deeds – file an application to lift the objection in an annulment proceeding. The default judgment and the payment order have the same effects as other judgments once they are final and binding.
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