DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: An Introduction to Dispute Resolution

The judicial system in the Dominican Republic is currently in a favorable state and improving its efficiency. Overall, it provides the legal certainty that guarantees foreign investment and business transactions. The judiciary branch continues the work to increase the level of trust in the system and significantly reduce its backlog. The Judiciary Council has recieved the support of the European Union to carry out a project that seeks to increase citizen confidence in the Dominican justice.

Because of COVID-19, in 2020 the Dominican courts were partially closed for several months and after their reopening there were some challenges that demonstrated the need to modernise the process of holding hearings and to digitalize court files. Therefore, in 2022, Law 339-22 was approved, regulating the use of digital media in the judicial process and in the administrative processes in the judicial system.

This new law regulates: the use of digital signatures or qualified electronic signatures by the different actors of the judicial system for the validation of judicial or administrative documents; the possibility to hold virtual hearings with the prior consent of the parties involved in the dispute, in all matters except criminal cases; the electronic access to judicial files; the possibility to receive notifications of the courts via email or a digital platform; and other transcendental procedures that may be carried out electronically as a result of the aforementioned legislation.

The current President of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCJ) has taken firm steps to reduce the mora judicial ("judicial bag lock"), on the basis that delayed justice is not justice and in his annual report provided some encouraging data on the reduction of the delays on judicial proceedings which constitute a major improvement.

The SCJ has been leading by example and has significantly reduced the time of the judicial process before such Court. The plan, known as "cero delays", has been very successful, as the time to issue decisions has been reduced from several years to approximately a year for the complete process before the SCJ. Other important courts, such as the Administrative Courts, have also sped up the timeframes of their processes.

Additionally, the judicial system is developing a “100% access and 100% transparency plan”, which will help to make the system more accessible to all users and avoid unnecessary bureaucracy, as well as increasing the level of trust in the judicial system.

From the procedural and efficiency point of view, we recently saw the approval of Law 2-23 which modifies the Law 3726 of 1956 that regulates the recourse before the SCJ (recurso de casación). This law is fundamental because of all the important changes it introduces to dispute resolution cases, including the fact that the appeal before the SCJ will not suspend the execution of the ruling appealed, the deadlines are shorter and expedited, some bureaucracy proceedings have been eliminated, and judges will have the right to decide if they need to hold hearings or not, which in most cases is not justified due to the written nature of the process.

In conclusion, it is estimated that the judicial system has improved significantly. Clients and lawyers may act now in an environment of greater legal certainty and trust in its integrity.