Commercial Litigation: Cyprus

1. Describe the structure and organisation of local courts with jurisdiction over commercial claims.

All commercial claims are currently initiated in one of the five District Courts, located in Nicosia, Limassol, Paphos, Larnaca and Famagusta. Each District Court comprises three ranks of judges, District Judges, Senior District Judges and Presidents of the District Court, and cases are allocated upon filing according to their value. Claims up to €100,000 are assigned to a District Judge, claims exceeding €100,000 but not exceeding €500,000 are heard by a Senior District Judge and claims above €500,000 are allocated to a President of the District Court.

As part of a wider judicial reform, a specialised Commercial Court has been established by statute to handle complex and high-value commercial disputes and to ease the workload of the District Courts, although it has not yet become operational pending the appointment of its judges. The Commercial Court, composed of five judges, will