Our Managing Partner, John Kyriakides, spoke at “Justice: The Foundation of Growth & Prosperity”, a high-level conference held at the Athens Conservatoire on September 23rd. Co-organized by the Council of State, the Supreme Court of Greece (Areios Pagos), the Ελεγκτικό Συνέδριο – Hellenic Court of Audit, SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises | ΣΕΒ σύνδεσμος επιχειρήσεων και βιομηχανιών, SDEE / Σ.Δ.Ε.Ε. (ΣΥΝΔΕΣΜΟΣ ΔΙΚΗΓΟΡΙΚΩΝ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΩΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ), and the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, the event focused on practical, implementable judicial reforms designed to serve citizens and entrepreneurship, strengthen the economy, and build trust in institutions.

John participated in the panel “Justice in the Mirror: Speed & Quality”, which explored ways to reduce time-to-judgment without compromising the quality of decisions. He expressed optimism for faster dispute resolution in the near future, reinforced by the strong attendance and active participation of the judicial community and their active participation in an unprecedented conference that was co-organized by the country’s three supreme courts themselves.

His key points included:
◾️The low cost of bringing civil and commercial cases before Greek courts is a key factor contributing to overloaded dockets and thus delays.
◾️Raising the overall cost of justice could, in fact, promote greater use of mediation.
◾️Smarter use of human capital: Implementing workload-based allocation and specialization to ensure cases are distributed efficiently and resolved more quickly
◾️Length of judgments: Court decisions should be more concise and straightforward, focusing on clarity and essential reasoning.
◾️The courts must identify cases involving abuse of rights and impose substantial legal costs to deter misuse of the judicial system and protect its integrity.

Despite past reform waves, tangible acceleration in the speed of rendering of the civil justice, remains limited; however, there’s real momentum today as the judiciary participates broadly and a shared understanding of the problem emerges.