The most relevant provisions of the act on the amendment of certain justice laws entered into force on 1 January 2020, affecting among others the Public Notary Act, the Company Registry Act and the Forensic Expert Act.
As a result of the modifications of the Public Notary Act, the conditions of the assignment of public notaries have been restricted, since the person, who was punished with removal from position as disciplinary penalty by a final decision of the public notary disciplinary court or who was pronounced as undeserving person, cannot be appointed as public notary until 10 years after the final decision of the court. In addition, such person cannot be a member of a public notary office as a public notary, public notary assistant or public notary associate for the same period of time.
Furthermore, the amendment distinguishes two groups of the cases of suspension of the notary public: in certain cases the disciplinary court must suspend the public notary from his service without any discretion (for instance in case there is a criminal procedure, procedure for placement under guardianship, disqualification or inaptitude procedure against the notary public). In the other category, the disciplinary court may decide on the suspension on the basis of discretion of all circumstances of the case. The amendments to the Public Notary Act also clarify and complete the provisions relating to the public notary documents and public notary certificate.
From 1 October 2019, the regulations on the free company information in the Company Registry Act have been amended in order to hinder the abuses with free company information. However, this amendment resulted in significant conflicts and difficulties in the business practice, thus, from 1 January 2020, the original text of the law has been re-established, i.e. the availability of information of the company registry is free of charge and unlimited again.
By Lidia Suveges, Attorney at law, KCG Partners Law Firm
