The Basis of Domestic Judgment Enforcement
A court decision fulfils its purpose only when it is executed. The Georgian Law on Enforcement Proceedings regulates which acts are subject to compulsory execution, on what conditions enforcement proceedings are opened, and who carries out the enforcement measures. The execution of acts issued by domestic bodies — Georgian courts and administrative organs — is the backbone of this system, and for a creditor, using it correctly often decides whether a real result against the debtor is obtained.
The Catalogue of Acts Subject to Enforcement
Article 2 of the Law defines the list of acts subject to execution under the procedure established by it:
- final court decisions, rulings and decrees in civil and administrative cases;
- final convicting judgments in criminal cases — as to fines, deprivation of property and compensation of the victim;
- decisions made immediately executable by the court;
- the court's warrant on the return of a leased item;
- notarial acts and pledge certificates;
- arbitral awards;
- individual administrative-legal acts of administrative organs imposing fines;
- judgments of the European Court of Human Rights binding on Georgia;
- mediation settlements for whose execution a court ruling has been issued and an enforcement writ delivered.
This catalogue is closed — no other act is subject to compulsory enforcement unless the law so provides directly.
The Enforcement Writ and the Opening of Proceedings
Under Article 20 of the Law, enforcement proceedings may not be opened without an enforcement writ, apart from cases connected with the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, pledge certificates, leasing certificates and orders on debt collection. The writ is issued on the decision subject to enforcement under this Law, and it is issued to the creditor. The National Enforcement Bureau opens proceedings on the basis of the creditor's written application and the enforcement writ. Exceptions exist where no application is filed: for instance, where, in simplified proceedings on claims for collection of monetary debts, execution of the debt-collection order was claimed in advance. It also matters that execution may begin only where the persons in whose favour and against whom execution is to take place are specifically named in the writ; and where the claim is secured by a mortgage or registered pledge, compulsory enforcement proceeds even against an owner of the property who is not the debtor named in the writ — subject, however, to the presumption of succession to the debtor's position. Where the decision provides for the growth of the creditor’s claim on the principal sum through interest and/or a surcharge, that accrual stops from the day the enforcement proceedings are opened — apart from tax claims and the surcharge defined by the law on funded pensions — and resumes only after the Bureau returns the writ to the creditor.