On the 30th of May, in Riga Palace, the President Andris Berzins met Ivars Bickovics, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to discuss results of work of the Supreme Court in 2011 and work priorities for this year.

During meeting, I.Bickovics informed the President about work done in the Supreme Court last year. Although number of cases arrived to the court hadn’t increased significantly last year, but terms of review of civil cases become longer, especially in commercial disputes due to difficulty of cases. I.Bickovics mentioned reviewing cases in written proceedings and implementation of mediation as possible solution.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court acquainted the President with work of the Board of Justice, stressing its role in drafting criteria for evaluation of professional operation of judges that will start in 2013.

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also informed that rulings of the European Court of Human Rights translated into Latvian language were published in the home page of the Supreme Court in April being useful not only for judges of the Supreme Court and lower court instances, but they are also considered to be valuable information source also for other interested persons. I.Bickovics pointed out that representatives of the Supreme Court meet Ineta Ziemele, the judge of the European Court of Human Rights, regularly and case-law of the European Court of Human Rights is discussed in general sessions of judges.