Institutionalizing Mediation Through Mandatory Initial Mediation Session (Law 4640/2019)

"Introductory Remarks

Nine years after the enactment of Law 3898/2010, which was the first piece of legislation to regulate mediation in Greece in compliance with Directive 2008/52/EC on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters, and almost one year and a half after its replacement by Articles 178-206 of Law 4512/2018, Law 4640/2019 was published on 30 November 2019 abolishing all previous legislation and constituting now the sole legal instrument regulating mediation in Greece. Law 4640/2019 essentially repeats and enhances the pre-existing legal framework concerning the requirement of a mandatory initial mediation session for a broad category of cases, which was suspended until the promulgation of the new law.

The Greek Mandatory Mediation Scheme

In principle, all civil and commercial law disputes can be voluntarily submitted to mediation as long as the parties have the authority to dispose of the subject of the dispute, namely, where the law does not require a court judgment for its resolution. Only exceptionally is submission to a mandatory initial mediation session introduced for the following civil and commercial disputes: a) family disputes (concerning lawsuits filed as of 15 January 2020); b) disputes under the standard civil procedure falling within the jurisdiction of the Single-Member Court of First Instance –when the value of the subject-matter of the dispute exceeds the amount of EUR 30.000,00– and the Multi-Member Court of First Instance (concerning lawsuits filed as of 15 March 2020); c) disputes arising from contracts which contain a valid mediation clause (concerning lawsuits filed as of 30 November 2019)."

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Web-link: http://mediationblog.kluwerarbitration.com/2020/01/20/greece-institutionalizing-...
Source: Resolve Mediators & ADR Experts
Language: English
Contact: Vassiliki Koumpli