ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile and Alina Tugearu, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
Nonetheless, failure to respond does not entail an automatic case win for the claimant. The court can raise several pleas ex officio (absolute and public order pleas such as lack of proce- dural capacity, lack of interest, inadmissibility, etc) and, in view of its active role, can even order the administration of necessary evidence. Any decision to be rendered in the case will be the result of a thorough analysis of all the facts of the case, of all the evidence and possibly of the arguments put forward by the defendant (irre- spective of the date of their response). 3.7 Representative or Collective Actions Law No 414/2023 was recently enacted to implement Directive (EU) 2020/1828 on repre- sentative actions for protecting consumers’ col- lective interests, and introduces an approach distinct from traditional joint actions. Under this law, consumers can be represented by a qualified entity, such as a consumer protection association, to both stop violations of EU law and seek compensation for damages caused by businesses. The law establishes a dual legal framework: for halting violations, the representa- tive action serves a public interest role, allow- ing representation without consumers’ express consent. However, when it comes to seeking reparations, the action is governed by private law, represent- ing only those consumers who have explicitly consented to be part of the group. Hence, only on reparatory aspects, the law establishes the opt-in system, whereby the qualified entity act- ing as the claimant must secure explicit written consent from consumers to represent them in actions seeking remedial measures, within 30 days of filing the representative action. Never- theless, consent may also be validly expressed
in writing and submitted up until the closure of proceedings before the court of first instance. 3.8 Requirements for Cost Estimate The legal assistance agreement concluded between the lawyer and the client at the out- set of the dispute shall state the fees to which the lawyer is entitled. However, if the fee agreed is computed on hourly rates, there are no legal and/or statutory requirements to provide the cli- ent with an estimate of the cost of litigation. In practice, however, lawyers usually provide cli- ents with such a cost estimate. The parties may apply for interim measures before the hearing of a claim, and even before the trial in particular cases and under strict con- ditions. As an interim remedy, the interested party may apply for freezing measures on goods, provisional measures or conservatory measures regarding evidence. Under Romanian law, there are no interim applications on case management issues. 4.2 Early Judgment Applications 4. Pre-trial Proceedings 4.1 Interim Applications/Motions There is no provision in Romanian civil procedure for the application of early judgments in cases of dispute, except for the interim measures mentioned in 4.1 Interim Applications/Motions (freezing injunctions, provisional measures, con- servatory measures regarding evidence) and the possibility to issue partial decisions on the issues in dispute, with respect to which the defendant has admitted the claimant’s allegations. Sometimes, provisional measures may be ordered by a court even before trial, under the condition that the claim is filed within a certain
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