The order for payment procedure in Romanian and Hungarian law of civil procedure

Abstract

 In our study we examine and compare the historical roots, subsequent development and currently applicable law of domestic order for payment procedures provided for in the Romanian and Hungarian legal systems. We establish, that in the jurisdictions under scrutiny the developmental features of this procedure differ significantly. While in Hungary it has evolved primarily as a default judgement to be rendered when the defendant fails to lodge an opposition to the claim in a set amount of time, which does not require the examination of the case on its merits and is currently a procedure administered by notaries public, in Romania the court must as a rule proceed to examining the merits of the case, albeit based only on the written instruments administered, even if the defendant lodges no well founded defence. From this basic difference flow deep consequences in the field of automating the order for payment procedure: while in Hungary it is already a mostly automated, electronic procedure, based on forms submitted into an integrated case management system, in Romania the prospects of such automation are limited by two aspects: lack of standardized forms to be used during the procedure and the requirement for the court to examine the merits of the case. However, the standardization implemented for the newly regulated procedure for small claims under the New Code of Civil Procedure, shows that the prospects for a future automated order for payment procedure have improved.