On November 6, the Saeima of Latvia approved amendments to the Civil Procedure Law and the Notary Law in the second reading, aimed at strengthening the protection of children's rights in divorce cases.
The amendments stipulate that agreements on custody, the right to communicate, and child support in the event of a divorce will have legal force and be subject to direct enforcement without the need to go to court.
As noted in the annotation to the bill, this will be possible due to the mandatory notarization of such agreements. In the event of a violation, one of the parties will be able to seek enforcement of the contract.
Until now, such arrangements, although made, did not have indisputable legal force, which often led to litigation in which the child effectively became the object of dispute and suffered moral distress, indicate the authors of the initiative from the Ministry of Justice.
The adopted amendments will reduce the burden on the courts and strengthen the legal protection of the child, freeing them from repeated psychological assessments and participation in multiple parallel processes.
In the new procedure, the notary acts as a neutral party, helping the parties reach a clear, understandable, and legally correct agreement. If the notary establishes the existence of a dispute, divorce without court proceedings is impossible. Thus, the amendments simultaneously simplify the divorce process and strengthen the rule of law, ensuring the interests of the child.
