ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile and Alina Tugearu, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
• the party is obliged to submit it, according to the law. As a rule, if the court orders disclosure of a docu- ment, the parties must obey. However, the court will not order disclosure of a document that: • contains strictly personal information regard- ing a person’s dignity or private life; • breaches a legal confidentiality obligation; and/or • leads to a criminal investigation of the party, its spouse or a third degree relative. The court alone checks if one of the cases men- tioned above is applicable, after studying the respective document. Refusal to submit ordered documents may be interpreted in some cases as an acknowledgement of the contents of those documents. 5.4 Alternatives to Discovery Mechanisms In Romanian civil trials, as a rule, all evidence is managed by and through the court. It is the court that allows for different types of evidence to be submitted, at the parties’ request. All exchanges of written evidence between the parties will be done only after the commencement of the trial. Witness statements are given orally before the judge. Each of the parties has the right to address questions to the witness. The answers to these questions and the statement are writ- ten down by the court clerk and signed by the witness. The document thus drafted is attached to the file as a witness statement. On the other hand, experts give primarily written evidence, in the form of an expert report that is submitted to the file. However, if the judge requires additional information, the expert may
be called before the court for an oral statement of clarification. The rule is that all evidence is presented directly in front of the judge and not by intermediary means. As an exception, after being admitted by the court, the administering of evidence might be conducted between lawyers or legal counsel if both parties agree to do so. However, in prac- tice, this procedure is hardly ever used. 5.5 Legal Privilege Attorney-client communications and information received by an attorney fall under the attorney’s obligation of confidentiality. The extent of the obligation may vary depending on the agree- ment of the parties, but a general obligation of confidentiality is applicable to all attorneys, regardless of whether they are external or in- house counsel. 5.6 Rules Disallowing Disclosure of a Document Apart from the rules mentioned in 5.3 Discov- ery in This Jurisdiction , there are no other rules allowing a party not to disclose a document. 6. Injunctive Relief 6.1 Circumstances of Injunctive Relief A party can obtain multiple forms of injunctive relief. In certain circumstances, a freezing injunction may be placed in relation to the debtor’s assets, upon the creditor’s request, when there is a risk that the debtor may alienate their assets dur - ing the trial. This measure freezes the assets of the debtor and prevents them from being sold, taken abroad, etc. The levy may be lifted if the
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