GREECE Law and Practice Contributed by: Vassilios Moussas, Charalampos Kondis, Christina Grigoriadou and Konstantina Margariti, Moussas & Partners
issues, the Special Supreme Court – an ad hoc panel of justices selected by both the Supreme Court and the Council of State – resolves the matter. Criminal courts include one-member courts of misdemeanours, three-member courts of mis- demeanours, mixed jury courts, one-member courts of appeal, three-member courts of appeal, mixed jury courts of appeal and the Supreme Court. Furthermore, as well as juvenile courts, there are special criminal courts that try cases involving offences by military personnel serving in the army, navy or air force (eg, courts-martial, naval courts and air force courts). The time a case takes from the commencement of legal proceedings to trial can vary significantly depending on several factors, including the type of case (civil, criminal or administrative), the type of proceedings (ordinary or special), the com- plexity of the matter itself, and the specific court involved as well as its workload. 1.3 Court Filings and Proceedings According to the Constitution, judicial proceed- ings are open to the public – unless an open hearing might insult bonos mores or public pol- icy. In criminal investigation proceedings, access is granted to the persons involved and also to third parties (if they have justified a lawful interest). With regard to court filings, the General Data Protection Regulation and the implementing Law 4624/2019 constitute the legal framework that provides the specific legal bases and con- ditions for personal data processing (eg, data subject’s consent and the protection of a legiti- mate interest). Although in the past court filings and issued decisions were considered to be of
a public nature, today data protection legislation and relevant concerns have severely restricted access to any third-party court documents. Law 5090/2024 has amended, as of 1 May 2024, article 363 of penal code on slanderous defama- tion. A key concept for slanderous defamation to be attributed to someone is the notion of “third party” before whom the knowingly dissemina- tion of false allegations should be made. Law 5090/2024 clarified this notion by explicitly men- tioning in new provision 363 of penal code that public servants or employees becoming aware of allegations made by litigant parties, while they are exercising their duties in the context of civil, penal or administrative proceedings, do not qualify as “third parties” for the purposes of this provision. This new provision has therefore solved a recurring issue, which has attracted in the past the interest of legal scholars and case law. 1.4 Legal Representation in Court Eligibility of a lawyer to appear before Greek courts depends on their registration with any Greek Bar Association. Escalation of the right to appear before first or second instance courts or the Supreme Court depends on the level of seniority of the lawyer. Any EU citizen may appear before Greek courts if they are a qualified lawyer in an EU member state who is registered at any Greek Bar Asso- ciation via the submission of evidence of a three- year actual and regular Greek legal practice (Presidential Decree 152/2000). Βy means of Law 4938/2022, when a lawyer rep- resents a client, in their capacity as an associate or partner of a law firm, the corporate name and registered seat of such law firm should be also
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