The Enforcement Proceedings Act and the Judgments and Other Decisions Enforcement Officers and Authorities Act govern the enforcement of Ukrainian judgments. Those acts provided a basis for reforming the enforcement system and introduced a new private enforcement institute. Much hope is placed in that institute.

Indeed, according to certain experts, over the recent years the percentage of successfully enforced judgments was critically low, reaching about 20%. Only 1% of Ukrainian judgments are voluntarily complied with, suggesting evidence of poor legal culture of our citizens who used to joke that ‘only cowards pay their debts.’ One way or another, the introduction of the private enforcement institute was quite a last resort to bring positive changes to the administration of justice in Ukraine and became an integral part of the judicial reform.

Over many recent years, the Ministry of Justice examined how that reform was implemented in the European countries but it is only now that they decided to start it. They realised that the state will never cope with such number of enforcement documents that the offices of the state enforcement service receive daily.

To learn about factors resulting in low percentage of successful enforcement proceedings please read article authored by Drozdova & Partners Law Firm senior partner Mykhailo Honcharov specially for Yuridicheskaya Praktika newspaper.