Effective National Approaches to Small Claims Procedures: Digital Enforcement in Slovenia

This paper reviews effective practices in small claims dispute resolution, namely digital enforcement of small claims in the Republic of Slovenia (hereinafter, Slovenia). This paper first presents the options available to a party with a small claim in Slovenia, including the national small claims procedure and the European small claims procedure, which coexist. Second, this paper outlines how digital enforcement in Slovenia further enhances the efficiency of small claims procedures and argues that it is one of the key tools for lowering the cost of enforcing a party’s rights. We discuss the positive and negative effects of digital enforcement and situate it within the broader system of legal options available to a party with a small claim. Third, we look at how digital tools could enhance the European small claims procedure and argue that the SCAN-II platform represents an important advance in simplifying and digitalising enforcement procedures. The main purpose of small claims procedures is to minimise the cost and length of the proceedings as the costs of litigating such small claims often exceed the value of the dispute. Hence, parties are hesitant to initiate regular proceedings and protect their rights. In Slovenia, the mechanism of digital enforcement helps alleviate that risk. Digital enforcement is used for the recovery of a sum of money based on a trustworthy document and thus, there is no need for the party to file a suit first and enforce the judgment later on. The enforcement procedure can be initiated solely on the basis of a trustworthy document, which streamlines and expedites debt recovery. Thus, digital enforcement crucially supports parties in enforcing their rights, especially in cases where the stakes of the dispute are low.