E.teismas: electronic filing in Lithuanian courts and the court fee

Procedural documents may be filed with a court by electronic means (Article 175¹(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Republic of Lithuania (CPK)). Documents that start a case are filed electronically through the public e-services subsystem of the Lithuanian court information system LITEKO, which you access on the portal www.e.teismas.lt (points 3 and 4 of the Description of the Procedure for Submitting Procedural Documents to Courts and Serving Them by Electronic Means, approved by Order No 1R-332 of the Minister of Justice of 13 December 2012 (the Description)). The CPK and the Law on Courts treat electronic filing as an option and a right. The e-filing reduction applies only when both conditions are met: the documents and their annexes are filed only by electronic means, and you state that you wish to receive procedural documents only by those means. You then pay 75 percent of the court fee (stamp duty, žyminis mokestis) payable for the relevant procedural document (CPK Article 80(7)).

Is e.teismas compulsory?

The CPK says that procedural documents “may be filed” with a court in electronic form by electronic means (CPK Article 175¹(2)). Article 37¹(3) of the Law on Courts of the Republic of Lithuania describes this as a right of the parties. Neither provision imposes a duty to file documents with the court electronically.

The duty that does exist is to receive documents. The court serves documents by electronic means on advocates, assistant advocates, bailiffs (antstoliai), assistant bailiffs, notaries, state and municipal enterprises, institutions and organisations, financial institutions, insurance and audit companies, court experts and insolvency administrators. Documents are also served electronically on persons who have that duty under legislation or under an agreement with the operator of the court information system. Others are served electronically if they asked for it and gave their contact details (CPK Article 175¹(9)).

In a court order case the rule is stricter. If you file an application for a court order for payment (teismo įsakymas) by electronic means, you undertake to receive procedural documents by the same means (CPK Article 432¹(3)).

How to log in to e.teismas

When you log in to the account, you must confirm your identity (point 5 of the Description). There are two ways:

• through the state information system used to provide public and administrative e-services (point 5.1 of the Description);
• with login details issued by a court (point 5.2 of the Description). They are first issued by the court in which a case in which you are a participant is pending or may be opened, and they can be used for an unlimited time (point 6 of the Description).

An individual logged in to the account acts in their own name or as the representative of another individual or legal entity (point 7 of the Description). So documents for a company are filed by an individual acting as its representative, from their own account. If a representative files the document, the document proving the representative’s authority is attached unless it is already in the case file and has not expired (CPK Article 111(5)).

No separate signature is needed. Electronic documents filed after identity has been confirmed in the ways set by the Law on Courts count as signed (CPK Article 175¹(6)). The Law on Courts requires documents filed electronically to be signed with a secure electronic signature, or the filer’s identity to be confirmed in other ways (through e-banking systems and the like), or the filer to register in the court information system (Article 37¹(3) of the Law on Courts).

What to state, and when a document counts as filed

In an electronic procedural document, in addition to the general requirements, state (CPK Article 175¹(3)):

• the email addresses, phone numbers and other electronic contact details of the participants, as far as you know them;
• whether you wish to receive procedural documents electronically, if you have no duty to do so. Anyone who must or wishes to receive documents this way must give their own contact details.

You must notify the court and the other participants without delay of any change in your contact details (CPK Article 175¹(4)).

In the system, documents can be filed by filling in forms (templates) or by uploading documents already prepared (point 13 of the Description). If data marked as mandatory in the system is missing, the system does not allow the documents to be filed and says what is missing (point 14 of the Description). Documents are filed when you confirm sending them, and the moment of filing is recorded automatically (points 15 and 16 of the Description).

You do not need to provide copies for the other parties when the document and its annexes are filed by electronic means (CPK Article 113(1) and (2)).

A deadline is not missed if the documents are sent before midnight (twenty-four hours) on the last day of the deadline (CPK Article 175¹(8)). How deadlines are counted is covered in Court procedural deadlines.

Court fee via e.teismas: two conditions

CPK Article 80(7) provides: “When the procedural documents referred to in this Article and their annexes are filed with the court only by electronic means and a wish is expressed to receive procedural documents only by those means, 75 percent of the court fee payable for the relevant procedural document is paid” (our translation), but not less than the minimum amount set in the same paragraph.

Three things follow from this wording:

1. Both conditions are needed. Filing electronically is not enough on its own. An electronic document states the filer’s wishes on electronic service (CPK Article 175¹(3)(2)), so state clearly, in the same document, that you wish to receive documents only electronically.
2. Only electronically. The reduction depends on both the document and its annexes being filed “only” by electronic means.
3. Per document. The 75 percent is of the amount payable “for the relevant procedural document”. The reduction applies to the documents referred to in CPK Article 80, which include court order cases (CPK Article 80(1)(7)) and documentary procedure cases (CPK Article 80(1)(8)).

If you change your mind later. If, during the case, you stop receiving documents only by electronic means and the reduction was applied, you must pay the missing part of the court fee (CPK Article 86(3)). If you do not pay it, the claim may be left unexamined in full or for the part on which the fee was not paid (CPK Article 86(4)).

If you paid too much. A court fee paid, or part of it, is refunded on application where more was paid than was due (CPK Article 87(1)(1)). The application is filed with the court within two years; for an overpayment, that period runs from the day the court’s judgment, ruling or order becomes final (CPK Article 87(4)). The fee is refunded by the State Tax Inspectorate (Valstybinė mokesčių inspekcija) on the basis of a court ruling (CPK Article 87(3)).

How the court serves documents electronically

The court sends the documents to your account and notifies you by a message in the account and by the email address you gave (point 22 of the Description). The day of service is the working day after the day the document was sent (CPK Article 175¹(10)).

If you must receive documents electronically but your account is not active, the court notifies you that you must activate it and sets a period of no less than 7 calendar days. When that period ends, the documents are sent to the account and count as served (point 23 of the Description).

Where the CPK Article 175¹(9) conditions for electronic service are met, the court issues the creditor an electronic writ of execution (vykdomasis raštas) signed with a qualified electronic signature (CPK Article 624¹(6)).

More on debt recovery

• Debt recovery in court: service page
• Applying for a court order for payment: which court and what to state
• Costs in a debt case in Lithuania: what the debtor must pay
• Court order, court fee and bailiff in Lithuania: what happens next

How to start

Send us the debt documents (contract, invoices, payment statement) and the debtor’s details. We will prepare the application or claim and file it through e.teismas so that both CPK Article 80(7) conditions are met.

Phone +370 5 212 1506, email info@linden.lt

More about this service: debt recovery in court.