PROCEEDINGS IN SMALL CLAIMS DISPUTES IN THE LIGHT OF THE PROVISIONS OF NOVEL CPA 2019

On September 1, 2019, the provisions of the Law on Amendments to the Civil Procedure Act (Official Gazette, No. 70/2019), which, among other things, introduced significant changes in the small claims procedure, became applicable. The purpose of reforming the provisions governing small claims litigation is to enable faster, more efficient and simpler solving of cases that burden the courts with a number that is not such as to require significant involvement of the parties and the court. Thus, for the cause of greater procedural discipline of the parties, the legislature reformed the provisions on the duty to present facts and present evidence; the (presumed) withdrawal of the claim; the grounds for appeal and the suspensive effect of the appeal, and abolished the obligation to publish the judgment immediately after the closing of the main hearing and the possibility to file an (so called) extraordinary revision in these disputes. As the normative regulation of the small claims procedure was almost regularly a specific test for the subsequent change in the regulation of the ordinary proceedings, we believe that these legal solutions, after their implementation in practice and the standpoints of case law and procedural law theory, will indicate the justification of their introduction in small claims disputes and will be a signpost to the legislator to implement them in the provisions of the Law on civil procedure, which regulates the so-called general litigation, all for the purpose of conducting prompt, efficient and rational litigation.