ROMANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Cosmin Vasile and Alina Tugearu, Zamfirescu Racoți Vasile & Partners Attorneys At Law
debtor provides a sufficient guarantee that the debt will be paid. Certain provisional orders may also be ordered by the court: • in urgent cases related to family relations, neighbouring and property relations, or com- mercial relations; • when, at first sight, the plaintiff seems to be entitled to the right claimed in the substantive hearing; • in order to preserve a right that might be damaged by delay; • in order to prevent imminent damage that might not be otherwise recovered; or • in order to set aside the obstacles that might be encountered in the enforcement proceed- ings. Injunctions to prevent parallel proceedings in another jurisdiction are not recognised under Romanian law. 6.2 Arrangements for Obtaining Urgent Injunctive Relief Applications for injunctive relief are considered urgent matters under the Romanian civil proce- dure rules, which provide for an urgent settle- ment of such cases. Therefore, the preliminary written procedure between the court and the claimant, aimed at ensuring the claim fulfils all formal conditions, theoretically no longer takes place (there is case law where judges still follow this procedure, but under shortened terms). Where the ruling is issued after hearing both parties, the defendant is summoned according to the rules of summon- ing in urgent matters (ie, the service no longer needs to observe the rule that a summons must be served at least five days before the hearing,
with the judge having the option to reduce the term for setting the hearing and serving the sum- mons, depending on the circumstances of the case). Another provision, meant to ensure the urgent settlement of such matters, states that in such cases the court will not admit evidence if the administration thereof will take a long time. For example, the civil procedure rules provide that, in extremely urgent matters, a provision- al order may be obtained on the same day on which it was applied for, with the court issuing a ruling based on the request for a provisional order and the evidence submitted, without hear- ing any of the parties. In practice, obtaining injunctive relief may take between a few days and a few months. 6.3 Availability of Injunctive Relief on an Ex Parte Basis In certain cases, the civil procedure rules provide that a freezing injunction or an order for provi- sional measures (depending on the circumstanc- es of the case) may be granted without hearing the parties, with the court ruling based only on the application and evidence submitted by the plaintiff. 6.4 Liability for Damages for the Applicant In most cases where injunctive relief is request- ed, the plaintiff is obliged (by the applicable legal provisions or following the judge’s decision to this end) to post a bail prior to the application being admitted. The bail acts as a form of securi- ty, intended to cover potential damages incurred by the defendant as a result of the injunctive relief, if the defendant discharges the plaintiff’s claims following the substantive hearings. When the defendant discharges the plaintiff’s claims following the substantive hearings, the injunctive
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