Debt collection in Lithuania

In Lithuania the most popular form of covering debt through the court is the Compulsory Execution of Obligations in Accordance with Warning Procedures. This form is the most popular because in the case the debtor does not have any objection against the debt and is reachable in his address the length of the process will take about 1,5 month and it is the cheapest (the stamp-duty is ¼ of the claim value). If the application is denied it is possible to continue ordinary court proceedings without losing the paid stamp-duty.

If the amount of the debt is less than 5000 LTL (about 1448 EUR) recovery of the debt is possible by Simplified procedure for a Small Amount Claims that offers faster possibility of  in  written form.

Court proceedings in Lithuania court proceedings in first instance can take from 2 to 9 months and final adjudication is approximately within 2 or more years. Legislation provides possibility to protect oneself from the negative actions of the debtor and to ask court to apply the temporary protection measures. Therefore if the property and bank accounts of the company would be arrested it is possible to ensure that in case of the positive judgment the debtor will have property or funds secured for covering the sum adjudged by the court. Submission of the application for the temporary protection measures is possible at any stage of the litigation or even prior the submission of the claim. The decision of the court might be implemented promptly by the bailiff.

Other possibility how to get back money might be by submitting the application on the debtor insolvency or at least to send a warning letter on starting the insolvency proceedings if the debt will be not covered within 3 weeks period. This is very serious and effective mean in cases where the debtor would like to continue the economic activity. But it is necessary to remember that in case of starting insolvency proceedings, debt stop growing and it will be required to divide the recovered money with other creditors. Insolvency proceedings might take few years.

Also there is European Small claims procedure in case creditor and debtor are in different countries and the claim is not exceeding 2000 EUR. The procedure is written and oral hearing is only an exception. This procedure is rather fast since the judgement has to be recognized and enforceable in any Member State.