Today, September 17, at 15.00, the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court will be held the agenda of which includes two issues. First, the Plenary Session will decide on appointment of the Senator of the Department of the Civil Cases of the Supreme Court Senate, and also the election of the Chairman of the Department. The vacancy in the Department of Civil Cases of the Senate opened after the death of Mārtiņš Dudelis on June 28, 2007, who held this position for long term.
Valerijans Jonikāns, the Chairman of the Department of the Administrative Cases of the Senate has given his consent for the nomination to this position. His candidature was acknowledged the best both in the deliberations of the Department of Civil Cases of the Senate and the meeting of the Supreme Court management.
V. Jonikāns was born on April 1, 1952, in 1975 he graduated from the State University of Latvia, Faculty of Law, Department of Law Sciences, qualification of lawyer. From 1999 till 2003 he worked as a judge in the Chamber of Civil Cases of the Supreme Court, afterwards the Plenary Session entrusted him establishment of the new Department of Administrative Cases. V. Jonikāns has also held positions of attorney-at-law, legal counsel, judge, and court chairman in Bauska, Talsi and Daugavpils.
The second issue on the agenda of the Plenary Session is connected with the information heard regarding the phone talks of the judges with the attorney-at-law Andris Grūtups. The information will be presented by the General Prosecutor Jānis Maizītis, and after that the Plenary Session will decide on the necessity to form a work group which could evaluate ethics of the Supreme Court judges who allegedly have been involved in the scandal of tapping the phone calls.
After the Plenary Session, at about 17.30, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Andris Guļāns invites to the press conference to summarize the work accomplished in the Plenary Session. The Plenary Session will be held in Room 461.