Judiciary

On 25 October, commentator Lato Lapsa criticised Justice Minister Edvards Smiltēns' proposal for new ways to maintain order in courtrooms, pointing out that judges already have broad powers to react to disruptive behaviour. Commenting on a TV programme, he questioned how well the minister understands the courts' everyday work.

The Ministry of Justice reports that websites run by the state publisher Latvijas Vēstnesis were suspended as a precaution for security reasons and are being restored step by step: vestnesis.lv since 22 October, likumi.lv and juristavards.lv since 23 October, lvportals.lv since 25 October. The Enterprise Register's service-description portal apraksti.ur.gov.lv is temporarily unavailable, while its registration-services portal works in Latvia and abroad. The notice was published on 22.10.2026 and updated later.

Representatives of the Latvian Council of Sworn Bailiffs took part in a conference organised by the Czech bailiffs' chamber marking 25 years of the bailiff profession there. The conference discussed Czechia's planned new enforcement law and the future of the bailiff profession across Europe, alongside talks with Lithuanian and Estonian counterparts on current professional issues.

Justice Minister Edvards Smiltēns met his German counterpart for justice and consumer protection in Riga and presented Latvia's work on strengthening courts' expertise in economic cases and on digital solutions. They also discussed the dialogue between judges and major employers' organisations launched in September on improving commercial dispute handling and procedural rules, and the simplification of company formation in the EU single market while keeping safeguards against money laundering and tax fraud. The second theme was cooperation with Bremen on child protection.

The shared e-Seal solution operated by the Court Administration was used more than 1.06 million times in the first nine months of 2026, 67.7% more than a year earlier. Use in courts rose 122.6% (646,661 times against 290,543), the prosecution service used it over 300,000 times, and over 109,000 documents were certified with it in the road safety directorate's system. The tool lets public bodies certify large volumes of electronic documents automatically.

On 20 October 2026 the European Court of Human Rights, at the request of Luxembourg's Constitutional Court, gave an advisory opinion: Article 6 does not in principle bar requiring a lawyer to appear in person in disciplinary proceedings, but the disciplinary body may not refuse as a matter of principle to hear counsel on the reasons for the absence and, absent a clear waiver, must give a genuine chance to defend, at least on appeal. The case does not concern Latvia and advisory opinions are not formally binding, but it signals what fair-hearing guarantees in professional disciplinary proceedings require.

The Latvian Council of Sworn Advocates has signed a cooperation agreement with the developers of Saga, an AI platform for legal work, giving sworn advocates and law firms access to a tool for analysing legal documents, conducting research and drafting documents. The Council stresses that AI should support, not replace, a lawyer's professional judgment, and users must still observe ethics and data-protection rules.

The Court Administration and law firm CersJurkāns discussed progress on the ESF Plus "Access to Justice" pilot, which from 23 September 2026 to 22 March 2027 provides free initial legal consultations on family, employment, debt and consumer, inheritance and property, and administrative/social matters. No concrete consultation numbers have been published yet.

Amendments to the Law on Judicial Power, published 14 October, shift several court-administration powers from the Justice Minister to the Judicial Council, including court reorganisation and judge transfers, add rules on judges' business ties to parties, allow publication of significant rulings from closed hearings and a public Supreme Court judgment archive, and impose a five-year ban on insolvency administrators whose powers a court revoked for abuse. The Saeima adopted the law on 1 October; it takes effect 1 January 2027, with some provisions on later dates.

A Court Administration representative, together with the Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Court, discussed the use of AI tools in the justice sector at the "Mirklis Juristiem" conference, stressing that AI is a support tool rather than a decision-maker. Already-deployed solutions were presented, including a ruling-anonymisation tool, an AI assistant and court-hearing audio transcription.

After attending an EU judicial-training summit on AI's impact on courts, Riga District Court deputy chair Guntis Lauskis said Latvia's AI adoption matches European trends. Since August, judges have had access to a Courts Administration AI assistant for handling documents, and guidelines for its safe use are being developed. Published 6 Oct 2026.

On 1 October parliament adopted amendments to the Law on Judicial Power that expand the Judicial Council's powers over court budgets and judges' careers, reducing the justice minister's role. The Judicial Council will now nominate regional- and appellate-court judge candidates to parliament, and judge's-assistant posts will gradually be replaced by a new 'court jurist' role. The amendments take effect 1 January 2027, with full transition planned by 2032.

Latvia's Supreme Court has built an internal AI-powered semantic search tool called "Judicata" that helps judges and staff quickly find information across roughly 440,000 court rulings and other documents. The court stresses it is a search engine, not a chatbot, meant to support research rather than replace legal analysis.

The Justice Ministry approved amendments to the unified lawyer qualification exam procedure, clarifying student rights in cases of suspected academic misconduct and allowing the commission to set alternative exam dates in emergencies. Commission composition will now reflect each university's actual student numbers, with the new rules first applying to the winter 2027 exam session.

"Jurista Vārds" summarised decisions taken by the Latvian Council of Sworn Advocates between 25 August and 17 September, including the disbarment of one advocate.

On 3 September Saeima adopted, and on 16 September the official gazette published, amendments to the Notary Law that simplify several procedures in sworn notaries' work and reduce the administrative burden for both notaries and the public. The amendments take effect on 1 January 2027; the same day (16 Sept) also saw publication of related amendments to the Law on Electronic Identification of Natural Persons and the Law on Identity Documents, which take effect on 30 September 2026.

At a meeting of Nordic and Baltic bar association leaders in Finland, where Latvia was represented by council chairman Saulvedis Vārpiņš, participants discussed AI's impact on the legal-services market and professional liability, the importance of bar independence, pro bono assistance, and the Council of Europe convention protecting the legal profession. They concluded that technology will require adapting lawyer training and ethics oversight.

The Judicial Council has reappointed Miķelis Zumbergs as chairman of the Economic Affairs Court for another five-year term. The court has handled complex commercial cases since 2021, including large-scale civil disputes and corruption cases. The reappointment ensures continuity of leadership at the court.

Justice Minister Edvards Smiltēns summarized the government's first 100 days in the justice area, citing the planned court-jurist institute to ease judges' caseload, proposed amendments to the Administrative Procedure Law for faster case handling and remote participation, and a Unified Construction Registration Service launching January 1, 2027, that will consolidate multi-agency property registration into one submission. The report also mentions a "pay faster, pay less" principle for administrative fines, letting payers settle 80% of a fine within a set deadline.

BB.LV reports that Latvia's Academy of Justice has begun training 17 new judges from various regions, specializing in civil, criminal and administrative law. The program's goal is to prepare judges both professionally and emotionally to administer justice lawfully and independently; the course includes mock trials and analysis of court rulings.

The Constitutional Court published its August 2026 activity report, recording 20 petitions received, 19 of them from private individuals. Three new cases were initiated, including one on compensation for unjustified property seizure, while 17 petitions were refused, some touching on civil procedure and insolvency matters. Twelve cases remain in preparation.

Minister of Justice Edvards Smiltēns, at a meeting with the management of the Riga City Court, discussed reducing the courts' workload: standardised, technical and uncontested cases are planned to be examined in written or automated proceedings while retaining human oversight, letting judges focus on contested cases. The Riga City Court employs 100 judges and receives around 10,000 civil cases a year, more than 2,000 criminal cases, around 1,300 administrative offence cases and more than 125,000 uncontested civil and Land Register cases. The misuse of AI to draft needlessly complex procedural documents was also discussed.

On 2 September 2026 sworn attorneys Ramona Miglāne and Agris Bitāns and assistant attorney Zelma Rence took part in the Ministry of Justice's discussion "Investment Protection and Litigation: Challenges and Solutions in Civil Cases", presenting proposals to improve the regulatory framework. The Latvian Bar Council stresses that investment protection is determined not only by the quality of substantive law but also by the effectiveness of procedural tools, the length of proceedings, the proportionality of costs and the speed of enforcement of rulings; timely interim protection, effective case management and greater availability of case law would strengthen investor confidence.

From 1 September 2026 the Riga Regional Court operates three panels instead of the previous two: the 1st Civil Case Panel (17 judges, headed by Deputy Chair Ilze Celmiņa), the 2nd Civil Case Panel (16 judges, headed by Deputy Chair Agnese Veita, which also includes Court Chair Māris Vīgants) and the Criminal Case Panel. The changes are provided for in the court's development strategy for 2024–2029 to organise the appellate examination of civil cases more effectively and promote uniform case law.

The Court Administration informs that from 9 September 2026 the Jelgava courthouse of the Administrative District Court is moving from Atmodas iela 19 to new premises at Dambja iela 12, Jelgava. The court's contact details are available on the tiesas.lv portal.

The Council of Sworn Bailiffs of Latvia (LZTI) announces that official certificate No. 57 of sworn bailiff Gunita Špēle of Riga Regional Court district No. 73 and assistant's certificate No. 30 of her assistant Maija Celma have been declared invalid. The certificates were annulled in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers regulations on the types of certificates and the procedure for their use.

The Ministry of Justice is assessing the workload problem of Land Register judges: at the start of 2026, 13 of the 68 positions for judges specialising in Land Register cases were vacant, cases were handled by 55 judges, and Land Register cases make up around 74% of their workload. Transferring some Land Register functions to the forthcoming position of court lawyer is being considered; no decisions have been taken yet, but without changes it will be difficult to maintain the level of service going forward.

Rūdolfs Eņģelis, sworn attorney at Sorainen and Chairman of the Supervision and Control Committee of the Latvian Bar Council, explains in an interview with LV portāls that following the Moneyval assessment the overall level of ML/TF risk in the legal profession has decreased. The AML/CTF Law's requirements apply to fewer than half of practising attorneys; the highest risks are concentrated in large commercial transactions and transactions involving funds from sanctioned jurisdictions. The Bar Council carries out on-site and remote inspections, a sectoral risk assessment has been completed and the internal control guidelines have been updated; the new single EU AML/CTF regulation and supervisory structure will pose a challenge.

The Bar Council reminds candidates for sworn advocate assistant status that documents must be submitted by 1 October 2026. The notice concerns the bar's internal admission procedure.

Justice ministers of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia met in Tallinn to discuss court-system digitalisation, data exchange between institutions and the use of AI in judicial processes, stressing that decisions remain with judges. They backed expanding the European Public Prosecutor's Office to cover serious EU sanctions breaches. The states agreed to continue coordinating on cross-border crime.

The Court Administration invites applications for vacant judge positions from individuals who have previously served as judges of the Constitutional Court or an international or supranational court. The call targets a narrow group of eligible candidates.

The justice ministers of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania will meet in Tallinn on 24 August to discuss protecting democratic processes and election integrity, including legal and information threats used by Russia. They will also discuss better-regulation principles to cut administrative burden and the digitalisation of justice systems, along with current EU justice-policy issues including more business-friendly regulation.

On August 18 the Court Administration published performance data for the state-guaranteed legal aid system for the first half of 2026. It received 668 applications for legal aid (up 8.3% year-on-year), funded with over €1.03 million from the state budget. The report also covers hotline calls, in-person visits, and the network of providers — 97 agreements involving 73 sworn advocates and other specialists across 30 municipalities.