Brno, Nov 2 (CTK) – The Czech language must be used in written communication with a Czech civil court and foreigners have the right to communicate in their mother tongue only in oral civil proceedings, the Supreme Court has decided.
Court panel chairman Pavel Simon writes on the court’s website that common practice has not been unified until now.
Participants in civil proceedings sometimes addressed the courts in foreign languages and courts felt obliged to translate their written replies to these writings, Simon said.
In criminal proceedings, the suspects continue to have the right to receive the most important documents and decisions in a language they understand.
In civil proceedings, the two parties in dispute have equal positions, while in criminal proceedings the charged persons are in “weakened” positions and they thus have a series of rights, Simon writes.
