Bailiff Profession: Status, Rights, Duties, Ethics and Disciplinary Liability
What is tested
Act No. 120/2001 Sb. (EŘ) and the Chamber's status rules: appointment, oath, independence, confidentiality, insurance, the exekutorský úřad, representation and disciplinary liability. Ethics is usually tested through a fact pattern rather than a definition.
Core rules
- A soudní exekutor is appointed by the President of the krajský soud in whose district he will act, after meeting statutory conditions (citizenship, full capacity, integrity, legal education, practice, exekutorská zkouška) and taking an oath. He exercises public power as a liberal profession, bound by law and other legal regulations, not by instructions from the parties.
- He runs an exekutorský úřad with a sídlo, official seal, file register and staff (kandidát, koncipient, employees). He may be represented by a zástupce but remains responsible.
- Duties: conduct enforcement without unnecessary delay, with moderation and proportionality, protecting the rights of both parties and third persons; confidentiality (mlčenlivost) binds his staff and survives the end of his office; compulsory professional liability insurance.
- Client money in úschova belongs to third persons and must be kept on a separate account; fees follow vyhláška No. 330/2001 Sb. (exekutorský tarif).
- Disciplinary liability for culpable breach of duty or conduct damaging the profession's reputation: the disciplinary commission of the Chamber may impose a reprimand, a fine or removal from office, with judicial protection afterwards.
- A party may seek the exekutor's exclusion where his impartiality is in doubt; the krajský soud decides.
Worked example
An exekutor is offered a case in which the debtor is the statutory body of a company that owes him money, and he also sits on the board of the creditor. He must decline and inform the court; if he proceeds, the debtor applies for exclusion for lack of nepodjatost, another exekutor is appointed, and the Chamber opens disciplinary proceedings. The rule protects the appearance of impartiality, not only proven bias.
Traps
Describing exekutors as state officials; confusing kandidát with koncipient; forgetting that confidentiality binds office staff and continues after office ends; treating disciplinary liability as a criminal matter.