Riga Arbitration Court

The article explains what an arbitration agreement is and why an arbitral tribunal cannot hear a dispute without one, even when a debt is undisputed. It describes two forms — a clause within a contract and a standalone agreement — and notes that since 4 July 2024 the written-form requirement can also be met through email or message exchanges. It recommends reviewing existing contracts and adding a model arbitration clause to future agreements.

Riga Arbitration Court's publication lists five categories of costs a creditor can recover from a debtor beyond the principal debt: court or arbitration fees, legal representation costs, statutory default interest, bailiff enforcement costs, and documented damages. It notes that since an April 2025 reform the state fee for monetary claims is a fixed amount capped at 25,000 euros, awarded in proportion to the satisfied share of the claim, while legal costs, interest and damages must each be separately justified and backed by documents in the claim filing. A worked example shows that an incomplete claim let a creditor recover only part of its extra costs, so the piece advises always claiming the full amount - principal plus interest, contractual penalty and recovery-related expenses.

Tiesību pulss is a free weekly digest published every Monday that gathers roughly 80-110 of the most important Latvian legal news items from about 89 sources, including parliament, government agencies, the tax authority, the Enterprise Register, courts and major law firms. It covers debt collection, civil procedure, arbitration, insolvency, commercial law, labour law, real estate and taxation, deliberately excluding criminal, administrative, family and inheritance law. It is available at tiesibupulss.lv in Latvian, Russian and English, and as a downloadable, searchable PDF archive.

The article explains how a creditor can confirm a debtor's actual declared address before filing a claim, to avoid an enforcement document being rejected over faulty notification. The fastest free option is the latvija.gov.lv portal, where logging in with eParaksts lets someone check within a minute whether a given address matches the declared one. If the address is unknown or does not match, a certificate can be requested from PMLP: electronically for 10 euros (3 business days), on paper for 12.50 euros (5 days), or urgently for 35 euros (2 hours, in person only).