The title of the Man of the Year of the Supreme Court and the Themis Prize was conferred to the Senator Roberts Guntis Namatēvs of the Department of Civil Cases. It is the highest attestation of the court acknowledgement to a person who, as it is said in the Regulations, “we respect and are proud of”. The winner of this acknowledgement is determined at the end of the year by secret ballot of the judges and employees of the Supreme Court in two turns.

The previous year for the Senator Namatēvs was intense and hard, as he had not only to review cases set in the court calendar, but also to deal with unexpected and complicated tasks – to lead the work group formed by the Plenary Session of the Supreme Court which had to prepare statement on breach of judicial ethical standards in the published phone calls of judges and attorneys, and upon the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office R. Namatēvs had to provide also an opinion on the lawfulness and validity of the disputed effective adjudications. Senator Namatēvs fulfilled the tasks professionally and decently.

In 2007, R. Namatēvs received the highest award of the Ministry of Justice – the I grade Diploma and the “golden” pen - for contribution in strengthening of lawful order and development of unified court practice in Latvia. R. Namatēvs has spent 42 years in the position of a judge, 31 of which in the Supreme Court, and at present he is the oldest Senator of the Supreme Court. However, he is an authority for his colleagues not only due to his honourable age but also because he “says the right words at the right place”, as Namatēvs is characterized by his colleagues.

The jury presided by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Andis Guļāns evaluated nominees of the departments and chambers for the professional nominations of the Themis Prize – Judge of the Year, Assistant to the Judge of the Year, and Secretary of the Year. The title of the Judge of the Year was awarded to the Chairman of the Department of Civil Cases Valerijans Jonikāns, the title – Assistant to the Judge of the Year – to the assisatant to the judge of the Department of Administrative Cases Kristīne Aperāne, and the Secretary of the Year – to the secretary of the Chamber of Criminal Cases Sanita Jefimova.

Themis Prize is the award of the Supreme Court established in 2005 to express gratitude and to honour the most successful and professional judges of the year, to motivate them for further work and development. The following professional nominations have been stated: Judge of the Year, Assistant to the Judge of the Year, Secretary of the Year. To determine the most successful person in the Supreme Court deserving acknowledgement, the popular nomination – Man of the Year was established.

In the previous years, the title Man of the Year was conferred to the Senators Rolands Krauze and Imants Fridrihsons, the title Judge of the Year – to Aiva Zariņa and Pāvels Gruziņš, but Anda Eglīte was twice acknowledged Secretary of the Year.

 

Information prepared by Division of Communications of the Supreme Court

Author: Rasma Zvejniece, Manager of the Division of Communications of the Supreme Court

E-mail: rasma.zvejniece@at.gov.lv, telephone: 7020396, 28652211