The Supreme Court is the highest level court in the three-tiered Latvian court system. In accordance with law, the Supreme Court reviews appeals in its capacity as the court of second instance (de novo review) and as the court of the third instance (cassation review).
The terms "court level" and the "court instance", although closely related, are not identical terms. Since 1995, there have been three levels of courts in Latvia. The first level courts are the district (city) courts; the second level are the regional courts and the third level is the Supreme Court. This three-tiered system ensures that the decisions of the courts of first instance can be appealed, are reviewed on appeal (de novo), and reviewed by a cassation appeal.
From an administrative standpoint, the Supreme Court is not connected to district (city) courts or regional courts. Neither the Chief Justice nor the Supreme Court Justices can control or instruct the judges of a lower level court on adjudication of specific cases or regarding the operation of lower level courts. The only link among the tiers of the court system is procedural, through the function of accepting cases appealed from the lower level courts.
