Spilbridge has successfully represented Yelverton Investments before the European Court of Human Rights in a dispute against the Republic of Latvia in what the firm describes as "a helpful example to understand certain remnants of the Soviet system in the Latvian judicial system.”
The Chairman of the Civil Department of the Latvian Supreme Court had filed a protest, seeking to quash a “binding judgment” worth EUR 5000 for Yelverton Investments against the Latvian state in a previous matter. According to a statement released by Spilbridge, although Western jurisdictions do not recognize the ability to quash binding judgments, Latvia is an “embarrassing exception,” being one of “various countries that [were] contaminated by this Soviet approach.” The firm reports that "the General Prosecutor’s Office are (sic) still filing such protests resulting in many binding judgments being quashed.” The firm conceded, in its analysis, that protests should be available to "remedy manifest miscarriage of justice (sic),” but "it should be done on the basis of an application of the party concerned rather than on the basis of a protest filed by a public official vested with discretion whether to do it or not."
In this case, the firm explained, on November 18, 2014, “the case law of the European Court of Human Rights caused the Supreme Court to dismiss the protest and help our clients to keep the protested judgment standing.”
Yelverton Investments was represented by Spilbride Managing Partner Daimars Skutans and Senior Associate Oskars Jonans.
