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The most significant novelty in the law refers to the procedure in commercial disputes (disputes between legal entities), by introducing mandatory mediation in commercial disputes for monetary claims whose value does not exceed 1,000,000 denars, after which the procedure is initiated with a lawsuit. Thus, with the amended Article 461 of the law, it is determined that in such disputes the parties are obliged, before filing the lawsuit to try to resolve the dispute through mediation, that when filing the lawsuit the plaintiff is obliged to submit written evidence issued by a mediator that the attempt to resolve the dispute through mediation failed and that the court would reject the lawsuit to which no such evidence was attached.

Such changes are aimed at strengthening the mediation institute in the Republic of Macedonia, its more active role in resolving disputes between legal entities, as well as creating an opportunity for the court to relieve such disputes. The purpose of mediation is to resolve the disputed relationship between the parties out of court and through negotiation, in a peaceful manner with the help of one or more licensed mediators in order to reach a mutually acceptable solution for which the parties enter into a written agreement, after a previously conducted mediation procedure. in accordance with the Law on Mediation (Official Gazette of RM no. 188/13).

Given that such an obligation for a previous mediation attempt is prescribed as mandatory only for commercial disputes for monetary claims whose value does not exceed 1,000,000 denars, it follows that the obligation for mandatory mediation does not apply to other civil disputes regardless of the value. of the subject of the dispute, of the commercial disputes for monetary claim whose value exceeds 1,000,000 denars, as well as for the commercial disputes in which the procedure is not initiated with a lawsuit before the court, regardless of the value of the subject of the dispute (eg in the notary payment orders).

The other amendments to the law further regulate the other provisions of the law in a way that in the part of evidence and evidentiary procedure the term “document” is introduced, the procedure for submitting documents to the court and the manner of obtaining documents when they are are found with the other party, or with a third party, and a new term “court payment order” is introduced, in order to differentiate the decision by which a payment order is issued, which according to the provisions of this law is issued by the court, from the decision allows enforcement on the basis of a credible document issued by notaries public on the basis of the Law on Enforcement. The role of the parties in the procedure is also strengthened in a way that gives them the right to directly ask questions and seek explanations from the experts regarding the given expert finding and opinion, without prior permission from the court. At the same time, the amount according to which small value commercial disputes are determined is increased, so instead of the current amount of 300,000 denars, according to the new legal solution, low value economic disputes will be considered disputes in which the claim refers to a claim in money that does not exceeds the amount of 600,000 denars.

With the exception of certain provisions, these amendments to the law will start to be applied after six months from its entry into force, ie on January 31, 2016, in order for the entities to have enough time to get acquainted with its provisions.