New edition of Art. 194 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation
1. The decision of the court of first instance, which resolves the case on its merits, is adopted in the name of the Russian Federation in the form of a court decision.
2. The court decision is made in a deliberation room, where only the judge considering the case or the judges who are members of the court in the case can be present. The presence of other persons in the deliberation room is not permitted.
3. The meeting of judges takes place in the manner prescribed by Article 15 of this Code. Judges cannot disclose opinions expressed during the meeting.
4. A judge who has a dissenting opinion on a decision has the right to express a dissenting opinion in writing within no more than five days from the date of the court’s decision. When expressing his dissenting opinion, the judge does not have the right to indicate in it information about the judgments that took place during the discussion and decision-making, about the position of individual judges who were members of the court, or in any other way reveal the secret of the meeting of judges. The judge's dissenting opinion is attached to the decision made.
Article 198 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. Contents of the court decision (current version)
1. The court decision consists of introductory, descriptive, motivational and operative parts.
2. The introductory part of the court decision shall indicate the number of the case, the date and place of the court decision, the name of the court that made the decision, the composition of the court, the assistant judge, the secretary of the court session, the parties, other persons participating in the case, their representatives, the subject of the dispute or the stated requirement.
3. The descriptive part of the court decision must contain an indication of the plaintiff’s claim, the defendant’s objections and explanations of other persons participating in the case.
4. The reasoning part of the court decision must indicate:
1) factual and other circumstances of the case established by the court;
2) the conclusions of the court arising from the circumstances of the case established by it, the evidence on which the court’s conclusions about the circumstances of the case and the arguments in favor of the decision are based, the reasons for which the court rejected certain evidence, accepted or rejected those given in support of its claims and objections arguments of persons participating in the case;
3) laws and other normative legal acts that guided the court when making a decision, and the reasons why the court did not apply the laws and other normative legal acts referred to by the persons participating in the case.
4.1. If the defendant recognizes the claim, the reasoning part of the court decision may only indicate the recognition of the claim and its acceptance by the court.
If the claim is rejected due to the expiration of the limitation period or the reasons for missing the deadline for going to court are recognized as unjustified, the reasoning part of the court decision indicates only the court’s establishment of these circumstances.
The reasoning part of the court decision may contain references to decisions of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation on issues of judicial practice, decisions of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, as well as reviews of judicial practice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation approved by the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.
5. The operative part of the court decision must contain the court’s conclusions on the satisfaction of the claim or on the refusal to satisfy the claim in whole or in part, an indication of the distribution of legal costs, the deadline and procedure for appealing the court decision. The operative part of the court decision made by the magistrate must also contain an indication of the deadline and procedure for filing an application for drawing up a reasoned court decision.
Concept and types of court decisions
In the process of administering justice, in order to protect the subjective rights and legally protected interests of citizens and organizations, the court resolves various issues. The resolution of a particular issue is an expression of the will of the court, the exercise of judicial power.
Acts of expression of the will of the court as a public authority are decisions made by the court (judge) in the process of considering and resolving civil cases.
The court of first instance makes the following types of decisions:
- solutions;
- definitions;
- court order.
The court ruling, which resolves the case on its merits, is made in the form of a decision (Part 1 of Article 194 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).
A court decision that does not resolve the case on its merits is issued in the form of a ruling.
The ruling resolves certain issues that arise during the trial (on postponing the trial of the case, terminating the proceedings, replacing an improper defendant with a proper one, securing a claim, etc.).
A court order is a court order issued at the request of a creditor to collect funds or to recover movable property from the debtor. In this case, the amount of money to be recovered, or the value of movable property to be claimed, should not exceed 500 thousand rubles.
It is issued only in the order of writ proceedings (Chapter 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation) and is aimed at the forced execution of strictly defined requirements without resolving the case on the merits.
A court order is at the same time an executive document and is executed in the manner established for the execution of court decisions.
A judicial decision is a court ruling containing a state-authoritative, individually specific instruction on the application of the rules of law to the facts and legal relations established in court proceedings.
Being binding, the decision is thus a means of protecting the subjective rights of persons who have applied to the court to resolve a material and legal dispute that has arisen.
In the theory of civil procedure, a distinction is made between the socio-political and legal significance of a court decision. The socio-political significance of the decision is manifested in the fact that it ensures the protection of personal, public and state interests, is a means of educating individuals and legal entities, and has a preventive effect on actual and potential offenders.
The legal significance of the decision lies in the fact that this act resolves a controversial legal relationship, and a court decision that has entered into legal force is mandatory for execution by all institutions, organizations, officials and citizens throughout Russia.
Since 1995, when changes and additions were made to the Civil Procedure Code of the RSFSR of 1964, in addition to the decision, it is also possible to issue a decision in absentia. A default judgment can be considered as a type of court decision, which is made according to the general rules of civil proceedings, but with some exceptions established in the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
The main difference between a decision in absentia and a court decision is the conduct of proceedings in absentia, which is characterized by the absence of the defendant, who was duly notified of the time and place of the court hearing of the case, but did not appear and did not make a written request to consider the case in his absence, the limitation of the plaintiff in administrative actions (the plaintiff does not have the right to change the subject, basis of the claim, or increase the amount of claims), which is reflected in the content of the default judgment.
In each civil case, the court makes one decision as a general rule.
What parts does any judicial decision consist of?
The final document of the case consideration by the court includes separately formed sections. The order of their placement is strictly regulated and is not subject to arbitrary adjustments. The judgment consists of four main parts.
The first part is introductory. This should contain information about the time and place of the court hearing, the full name of the authority forming the decision, the composition of the judicial commission (full name of the secretary, prosecutor, representatives and participants), as well as a description of the essence of the proceedings (subject).
The second part is the description. A detailed description of all claims of the participants in the case, a description of the materials, facts and evidence of the case. The requirements of all parties at each stage of consideration are listed. Revisions and changes to final requirements are also reflected in this part.
The third element is the motivation section. This part provides a detailed description of the evidence of the validity of the court decision from the evidence of the case and the legal aspect.
The last part is the resolution . It is carried out in the form of conclusions, requirements and obligations with a concise statement of a list of instructions with clearly defined deadlines for implementation.
The document is drawn up in a strictly business style, without emotional overtones, with the most complete presentation of all aspects of the case, starting from the requirements of the parties and ending with a list of assigned measures and actions as the final verdict.
Structure of a court decision
Composition of the court decision, features
The last part is drawn up with special attention, since it is the operative conclusion that is drawn up as a result of a detailed description of the 4 parts of the court decision and is considered the result of the final decision.
The resolution of the court decision includes:
- a diagram of the distribution of costs by stages of the trial, indicating the exact amounts spent on all stages of the process;
- the permissible period and procedure for appealing a decision in case of disagreement of the participants;
- in individual cases, options for deviations from the standard execution of the sentence/decision are described (if this was considered during the trial).
That is, the resolution is the result and final result of the trial.
Legislative definition of resolution
Components of a court decision in a civil case
Depending on the case, the subject of the dispute and the specifics of the process, the final document in the form of a decision may differ in structure from the standard one.
In divorce proceedings, the descriptive part of the court decision may be absent if the following factors are present:
- mutual consent to divorce;
- presence of minor children;
- evasion of divorce proceedings by one of the parties;
- evading the division of property.
In such circumstances, the marriage is dissolved without setting out the descriptive section of the decision and clarifying the reasons. Ultimately, the decision will include a preamble and a resolution.
Example of a divorce decree
The essence and significance of a default judgment
Absentee proceedings, like writs, are simplified methods of resolving civil legal conflicts.
Absentee proceedings are the consideration, with the consent of the plaintiff, of a civil case in the absence of a defendant who has failed to appear, duly notified of the place and time of the court hearing, who has not reported valid reasons for the failure to appear and has not asked for the case to be considered in his absence.
Although proceedings in absentia are a viable means of ensuring timely justice, the plaintiff may not agree to use it. The reason for this, as a rule, is the fear that the default judgment will be canceled due to the presence of significant evidence by the defendant and good reasons for his failure to appear at the court hearing. The duty of the judge is to explain to the plaintiff the rules of absentee proceedings, their consequences, the impossibility of changing the subject or basis of the claim, or to increase the amount of claims within the framework of absentee proceedings.
According to Art. 234 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, when considering a case in absentia, the court conducts a hearing in the general manner: examines the evidence presented by the persons participating in the case, takes into account their arguments and makes a decision, which is called in absentia. A copy of the court's decision in absentia is sent to the party who did not appear at the court hearing no later than three days from the date of the decision (Article 236 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).
The content of the default judgment has no fundamental differences; it is determined by the requirements of Art. 198 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. Its peculiarities include only the indication in the operative part of the deadline and procedure for filing an application to cancel this court decision (Part 2 of Article 235 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).
The defendant has the right to submit to the court that made the decision in absentia an application for its cancellation within 7 days from the date of delivery of a copy of this decision to him (Part 1 of Article 237 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation), or 1 month from the date of the court's ruling refusing to satisfy the application for cancellation of a default judgment (appeal). An application to cancel a court decision in absentia is signed by the defendant or, if authorized, by his representative and submitted to the court with copies, the number of which corresponds to the number of persons participating in the case. An application to cancel a default judgment is not subject to payment of a state fee.
The court, having received an application to cancel the default judgment, notifies the persons participating in the case about the time and place of consideration of the application, sends them copies of the application to cancel the default judgment and the materials attached to the application.
Cancellation of a default judgment may occur in the presence of two circumstances in combination:
- the party’s failure to appear at the court hearing was caused by valid reasons, which the party did not have the opportunity to inform the court in advance;
- the party presented evidence that may affect the content of the default judgment.
If the default judgment is canceled by the court that made this decision, the consideration of the case on the merits is resumed and conducted according to the rules established by the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. If the defendant fails to appear again, the decision made will not be considered in absentia. A defendant who fails to appear does not have the right to re-submit an application to the court to review this decision as in absentia.
If the plaintiff objects to the consideration of the case in absentia in the absence of the defendant, the court postpones the consideration of the case and sends a notice to the defendant of the time and place of a new court hearing.
The introduction of simplified trial procedures into civil proceedings is a necessary way to solve the problem of court congestion and indiscipline of persons involved in the case.
