Objections to the statement of claim, sample 2021

Who serves

The following have the right to file objections to the claim:

Defendant in the main claim;
Plaintiff in the counterclaim;
Third parties involved or involved in the matter.

Olga Smirnova

Civil lawyer, Master of Laws

Objections to a claim are usually filed by the defendant against whom the claim is brought. The right to file a written objection to a statement of claim is enshrined in Article 149 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation (subparagraph 2 of part 2).

An objection to the counterclaim may also be filed. Such a document is filed by the plaintiff who has received a counterclaim from the defendant.

An improper defendant, against whom the claim was brought in error, can also file objections to the claim. In such a document, he can indicate the reasons why he needs to be removed from the process.

How to appeal the decision of the draft commission of the military registration and enlistment office

As a general rule, the chairman of the draft commission is obliged to announce the decision (conclusion) to the citizen in respect of whom it was made (made).

Upon a written application from a citizen submitted to the military commissariat, an extract from the minutes of the meeting of the draft commission on the corresponding decision (conclusion) is issued.

Statement

on the issuance of an extract from the minutes (decision, conclusion) of a meeting of the draft commission (form)

Within five working days

from the day the application is submitted, an extract from the protocol is issued to the citizen in person or sent by registered mail with return receipt requested to the address specified in the application (clause 6 of Article 28 of Law No. 53-FZ).

If a citizen does not agree with the decision (conclusion) made by the draft commission, he can appeal it to the draft commission of the relevant constituent entity of the Russian Federation.

The complaint must be filed within three months

from the date of the appealed decision (conclusion).

Statement

on appealing the decision of the draft commission (form)

The draft commission of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation considers a complaint against the decision of the draft commission within five working days

, and for the conclusion of the draft commission - within
a month
from the date of receipt of the complaint by the draft commission (Clause 7, Article 28 of Law No. 53-FZ).

Why apply

The main motive for objecting to the claim is the defendant’s desire to indicate his disagreement with the requirements presented. This is a response to the claim.

The position of the defendant, formulated in writing, plays an important role in the process. When considering a case, it is convenient for the court to work with written documents, where the position of the party is presented in a systematic and understandable form.

Disagreement with the claim can also be expressed orally - this is also considered an objection to the claim.

To file an objection to a counterclaim, the motive will be the same, but it will be filed by the plaintiff in order to defend against the counterclaim.

Objections can be filed not only against the claim, but also against a separate petition filed by any of the persons participating in the case. Such statements are most often formulated orally, but a written document is also possible.

How to appeal the decision of the draft commission in court

As a rule, you can appeal the decision (conclusion) of the draft commission to the court at the same time as filing a complaint out of court. However, only judicial procedure is allowed.

For example, the decision of the conscription commission of a constituent entity of the Russian Federation, the decision of the conscription commission to refuse to replace conscription military service with an alternative civil service (clause 7 of article 28, clause 4 of article 29 of Law No. 53-FZ; part 1 of article 15 of Law No. 113-FZ).

In order to invalidate the decision of the draft commission in court, we recommend adhering to the following algorithm.

Objections or feedback?

Another name for objections to a claim, which is used mainly in the arbitration process, is a response to the statement of claim. The meaning of this document is the same - to present to the court the defendant’s position regarding the stated requirements. There are no significant differences between these documents.

Olga Smirnova

Civil lawyer, Master of Laws

When the defendant submits his position to the court, in civil proceedings this document is usually called an “objection to the claim.” However, if you call it “feedback”, the document will still be accepted.

How to write

There is no single form of written objection to a statement of claim. But there are some generally accepted rules for drawing up this document. The same rules apply to the preparation of objections to a counterclaim, petition, etc.

Objections to the claim must contain:

Name of the court where the document is filed;
Details of the person submitting the document and his procedural role (defendant, plaintiff, third party), as well as his representative;
Names of other parties to the process;
Case number;
The essence of the defendant’s position in the case;
Date and signature;
List of attached documents.

Objections to the court filed in arbitration proceedings do not differ significantly from those filed to a statement of claim in civil proceedings. But at the same time, the requirements for their content and presentation of material are traditionally higher. It is better to draw up an objection to a statement of claim to an arbitration court (response to the claim) with the assistance of a professional lawyer. Participants in arbitration proceedings are expected to be better prepared or to hire a qualified representative (which is what most do). Therefore, the overall level of documents submitted to the court is usually higher.

Legal assistance will not hurt when preparing an objection to a claim in civil proceedings.

Commentary to Art. 131 Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation

1. The defendant’s submission of a response to the statement of claim is his procedural duty. In his response, the defendant has the opportunity to present in an exhaustive manner all the objections that he has to each argument of the stated claim. Timely raised objections to the merits of the claim are a prerequisite for high-quality preparation of the case for hearing.

The reasons why the defendant has objections to the stated claim must not be abstract, but supported by evidence. Therefore, the defendant is obliged to accompany the response to the claim with the necessary documents, which are presented as evidence in the case. Usually, copies of documents are sent to the arbitration court, the originals of which are handed over to the court and the persons participating in the case for viewing at the court hearing.

The defendant has a procedural obligation to send copies of documents along with the response to the claim to the plaintiff, as well as other persons participating in the case, if they do not have any of these documents. Such an obligation is a necessary element of the implementation of the procedural mechanism of adversarial proceedings associated with the exchange of pleadings.

Evidence of the timely sending to the persons participating in the case of the response to the claim with all its attachments is presented by the defendant to the arbitration court.

In judicial practice, a response to a claim is often served on judicial representatives of other persons participating in the case in the courtroom. This is better than sending documents late by mail, when the response to the claim will obviously not be delivered to its addressees by the day of the preparatory court hearing. The prospects for a timely response to the claim will be related to the legislator’s views on the need to increase the discipline of the defendant under the threat of adverse procedural consequences.

The current arbitration procedural law provides that persons participating in the case can only refer to evidence with which other persons were promptly familiarized (Part 4 of Article 65 of the Arbitration Procedure Code).

It is premature to talk about how much judicial practice will follow the path of formalizing and tightening this requirement, since this rule is a particular manifestation of deep theoretical views on the role of the court, the responsibility of professional judicial representatives, insurance of the risks of their professional activities and the conditions for real competition.

A response to the claim can be submitted to the arbitration court by filling out a form on the official website of the arbitration court on the Internet. The documents attached to it can also be submitted electronically.

Sending a response to a claim to the arbitration court in electronic form does not relieve the defendant from the obligation to provide a response in proper written form to other persons participating in the case, since there is currently no full-scale electronic document flow in the arbitration process.

2. Not only the defendant, but also other persons participating in the case, can also send a response to the claim to other participants in the trial who have a substantive or procedural interest in the case under consideration. The grounds and procedure for sending their response are provided for by this codified arbitration procedural law.

The number of participants in the judicial proceedings who have the right to send a response should include third parties with independent claims on the subject of the dispute and third parties without independent claims on the subject of the dispute. Both groups of third parties do not and cannot have restrictions on procedural rights associated with the opportunity to express their opinion in a response regarding each claim and each basis for the stated claim.

3. The response to the claim is sent to the arbitration court, as well as to the persons participating in the case, by registered mail with notification of receipt. An exception is provided only for sending a response to the arbitration court if the defendant used the filling out of an electronic form on the official website of the court at the place of consideration of the declared dispute.

Of course, the defendant must have the necessary time to properly prepare a response to the claim. The legislator obliges the defendant to ensure that the response itself reaches the arbitration court and the persons participating in the case in a timely manner. These persons have the procedural right to familiarize themselves with it before the start of the court hearing and prepare to participate in this hearing.

Verification of the proper fulfillment of the obligation to timely send a response to the claim to each of the addressees can be carried out by the arbitration court upon notification of the date of receipt of registered mail.

The written form of filing objections to the claim, as well as the procedure for sending a response, are determined in the commented article.

The response to the claim is usually filed by the defendant. However, the author of the response to the claim may be the plaintiff himself, if the defendant has filed a counterclaim.

An important innovation in the current arbitration procedural law is the power of the arbitration court to specify the deadline for providing a response to the claim and indicating the calendar date.

Such opportunities, implemented by the arbitration court, will contribute to the development of partnerships between procedural opponents and will serve to properly prepare the case for hearing, especially in complex multi-volume cases.

4. As the adversarial principles in the arbitration process develop, the response to the claim is given more and more importance.

The current version of the arbitration procedural law provides the arbitration court with the opportunity to re-set the deadline for sending a response to the claim if, without this response, consideration of the case based on the documents available in the case and other evidence presented is impossible.

Failure by the defendant to fulfill the procedural obligation to timely file a response to the claim may entail the consequences provided for in Part 2 of Art. 111 of the APC, that is, the imposition of legal costs on him regardless of the results of consideration of the merits of the case.

This procedure guides the parties towards the timely disclosure of judicial evidence.

5. The response to the claim has a free form of presentation of the substance of the objections. Nevertheless, the legislator defines as mandatory some formal requirements that help to establish that the review belongs to a specific case in the large document flow of the arbitration court, and also focuses on its components, which make it possible to present the maximum of useful information.

Taking into account the two mentioned criteria, the legislator includes the following components of the response to the claim:

— name of the plaintiff indicating the location (for organizations) or place of residence. This does not mean formal, but actual residence, suitable for correspondence during the trial;

— the name of the defendant indicating his location (residence). If the defendant is an individual entrepreneur operating without forming a legal entity, then it is necessary to indicate the date and place of his birth, place of residence, place of work, as well as the place and date of state registration in the declared capacity. A list of additional requirements is necessary to identify citizens and prevent difficulties at the stage of execution of adopted judicial acts;

— objections to each of the stated demands and arguments with references to evidence and regulatory legal acts. From a substantive point of view, this component in a response to a claim is decisive. In civil proceedings, for comparison, there is no mention of a response to a claim; there is an indication of objections to the claim, which represent its core;

— a list of documents attached to the review, which allows all interested parties to analyze not only the objections, but also the evidence presented in support of these objections.

6. As not additional (optional), but mandatory information, the response to the claim must contain updated information about changes in location, operational communication channels for the exchange of information (e-mail, telephone numbers, faxes and other technical means of interaction), that is, all of that , which is necessary for timely and correct consideration of the case.

If the response to the claim contains other postal details than those stated, the arbitration court must take them into account in further correspondence. The transition to tracking the progress of the case on the official website of the arbitration court does not completely eliminate the need for correspondence.

7. The importance of a response to a claim is associated with exhaustive objections to each argument of the claim brought, documentary evidence of the objections presented to the arbitration court.

In a judicial institution, it is customary not only to explain, but also to prove every legally significant fact stated in the objections to the claim. The documents attached to the response to the claim serve these purposes.

In addition to documents in support of objections to the stated claim, the legislator requires the mandatory attachment of another category of documents, namely, confirming the fact of sending or delivering a copy of the response to the claim to each person participating in the case.

8. The legislator attaches decisive importance to the signing of the response to the claim by an authorized person. Without compliance with this requirement, the institution of revocation of a claim loses all meaning and the procedural significance assigned to it.

The head of the organization signs the response to the claim without a power of attorney, but with documentary evidence of his official powers (Article 61 of the APC). Professional judicial representatives usually attach a copy of the power of attorney, the original of which is presented for review. Signing a response to a claim is considered by the legislator to be one of the special powers of the representative, therefore the power of attorney must necessarily contain an indication that the attorney has such authority (Article 62 of the APC).

Contents of objections

The main part of an objection to a statement of claim filed with the court is its content - those arguments and evidence that the defendant wishes to present to the court. Usually the information contained in them refutes the claims stated in the statement of claim (but there are also cases of their partial recognition).

It is necessary to approach the preparation of the document with the utmost care, since this document largely determines whether the defendant will be able to avoid liability for the stated claims.

It is advisable to write the text of the document so that:

It was easy to read;
For every argument or demand stated by the plaintiff, there was a counterargument.

This structure of the document will allow the court to easily navigate it (which, ultimately, can become a significant argument in favor of the defendant’s position).

Conventionally, the content of objections to the claim can be divided into two groups of statements:

Material related to the refutation of the plaintiff’s claims on the merits;
Procedural, which boils down to procedural defects that the defendant wishes to draw attention to.

An example of a substantive defense would be a defendant's challenge to various facts on which the plaintiff bases its claims. For example, the plaintiff may try to recover money under a concluded agreement, and the defendant may claim that this agreement was not concluded. Procedural arguments will be based on the plaintiff's failure to comply with various procedures that accompany the exercise of a right or filing a claim in court.

The text of the document does not necessarily distinguish one category from another. If the defendant's position on a particular issue is clear, then it does not matter whether the argument is procedural or substantive.

What applications are needed

An important part of the defendant’s objections is the evidence he provides in the form of documents, witness statements and other justifications that the plaintiff’s claims should be rejected.

Copies of the documents on which the objections to the claim are based must be attached to the text (in this case, a complete list of attachments must be included in the document). In the future, upon request of the court, the defendant will be required to provide the originals of these documents.

In addition, in support of his arguments, the defendant may ask the court to call witnesses, conduct an examination and carry out other procedural actions necessary for a comprehensive consideration of the case.

Technical features when compiling

The text of the document should not exceed five pages, although there is no legal prohibition on this criterion, but for human perception this volume is optimal. Before challenging a claim, you should familiarize yourself with the generally established rules for filing an objection. Try to avoid long names, use abbreviations whenever possible. Do not use small font; it is recommended to use size 14 with one and a half spacing. It is possible to use bolding of phrases, but this should be done sparingly.

Indicate the case number, surname and initials of the judge hearing the case. There is no such obligation at the legislative level, but mentioning this in the descriptive part is a rule of good form.

For easier comprehension, it is recommended to use numbering of paragraphs within the document and pages. This will allow you to quickly orient the court according to the text of your document when speaking and keep their attention.

The main forms of acts and appeals are published on the official websites of the relevant courts.

Sample objections

For a statement of claim

In ___ district court of Moscow

From: Full name (defendant), address, telephone, Taxpayer Identification Number or other identifier.

Plaintiff: Full name, address, telephone.

Case No. ___

Objections to the claim

The ____ district court of Moscow is processing case No. ____ based on a claim by the full name (plaintiff) against the full name (defendant) about (indicate the stated claims).

The defendant does not agree with the demands presented in the statement of claim for the following reasons:

Indicate the reasons;
….

The above circumstances are confirmed by the following evidence______.

Based on the above and in accordance with Articles 35 and 43 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation:

ASK

Refuse to satisfy the claims.

List of attached documents.

Date, signature.

For an administrative claim

Objections to an administrative claim are drawn up according to the same principles as to a regular statement of claim. They are compiled by the administrative defendant, whose actions are being challenged in court.

In ___ district court of Moscow

From: Full name (defendant), address, telephone, Taxpayer Identification Number or other identifier.

Plaintiff: Full name, address, telephone.

Case No. ___

Objections to an administrative claim

The ____ District Court of Moscow is processing case No. ____ on an administrative claim Full name (plaintiff) against _____ (defendant) about (specify the stated demands).

The defendant does not agree with the demands presented in the administrative statement of claim for the following reasons:

Indicate the reasons;
State the reasons.

The above circumstances are confirmed by the following evidence _____.

Based on the above and in accordance with Article 135 of the CAS RF:

ASK

Refuse to satisfy the claims.

List of attached documents.

Date, signature.

Sample of the plaintiff's objection to the defendant's objection

If the defendant has spoken out on issues that the plaintiff has not previously raised in his claim, he can do so in an additional document - objections to the defendant’s filed objections. This document is drawn up according to the same rules as regular objections. In this case, the text must indicate what exactly it refers to.

An example of such a document is given below.

In ___ district court of Moscow

From: Full name (plaintiff), address, telephone number, tax identification number or other identifier.

Respondent: Full name, address, telephone number, Taxpayer Identification Number or other identifier.

Case No. ___

Objections to the defendant's objections to the statement of claim

The ____ district court of Moscow is processing case No. ____ based on a claim by the full name (plaintiff) against the full name (defendant) about (indicate the stated claims). ____ 20___ the defendant filed objections to the statement of claim (sheets of the case ____).

The plaintiff does not agree with the arguments stated by the defendant for the following reasons:

….
….(arguments are given against the defendant’s position).

Based on the above, I ask the court to take into account this document as complementary to the plaintiff’s position in the case.

Date, signature.

Methods for submitting objections to arbitration

Objections drawn up in accordance with the rules of Article 131 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation can be sent to arbitration in the following ways:

by mail;
via email;
personally by the representative of the defendant. In this case, objections are submitted to the arbitration office.

The objection must be accompanied by evidence of delivery of copies of the objection to the participants in the process. If there was only a short period of time between the day of the hearing of the case and the day the parties received a copy of the objections, and the parties were unable to study the arguments of the document, then, at the request of either party, the arbitration court will postpone the hearing, giving the parties a period to study the objections.

Evidence of delivery of copies of the objection to the parties may include:

mail notifications;
painting upon receipt;
any other form of confirmation of receipt.

When a counterclaim is needed instead of an objection

The Civil Procedure Code provides for another way to protect the defendant in a lawsuit - filing a counterclaim. A counterclaim differs from an objection in that it contains independent demands of the defendant against the plaintiff.

For example, the plaintiff filed a claim to recover property under a purchase and sale agreement. The defendant believes that he actually does not have an agreement with the plaintiff, since there were significant violations of the law when drawing it up. In this case, it is necessary to file a claim to declare the contract unconcluded or invalid.

The decision of the draft commission can be appealed

Depending on the circumstances of the case, extrajudicial and (or) judicial appeal is allowed (clause 7 of article 28, clause 4 of article 29 of the Law of March 28, 1998 No. 53-FZ; Article 15 of the Law of July 25, 2002 No. 113-FZ ).
Reference.

Decision and conclusion of the draft commission

The draft commission makes the following decisions (clause 1, article 28 of Law No. 53-FZ):

- about conscription for military service; - on assignment to alternative civil service; — on granting a deferment from conscription for military service; — on exemption from conscription for military service; - about enlistment into the reserve; - on exemption from military duty.

The conscription commission may also issue a conclusion recognizing a citizen as having failed military service under conscription without legal grounds (clause 1.1 of Article 28 of Law No. 53-FZ).

Addendum to the objection to the claim

If any of the plaintiff’s arguments were not addressed in the original text, an addition can be submitted to it. It is drawn up according to the same rules as the original document for the claim, and is submitted to the court in writing.

It will be necessary to supplement the position even if, during the consideration of the case, the plaintiff clarified the claims, changed the subject or basis of the claim, or presented the court with additional arguments or evidence.

Drawing up objections to a claim is the most important step in defending against claims. This document has many nuances that cannot be described in one article. Consult with a lawyer to get an accurate answer to your questions.

What arguments can be used to respond to a statement of claim?

First of all, this is disputing the amount of debt. Then, in your objection to the claim, you should provide your calculations.

If we are talking about challenging ownership rights, then in his objections the defendant can indicate that the property belongs to him.

In objections to the claim, the issue of expiration of the limitation period may be raised. After all, if this happened, then the court is obliged to make a negative decision on the claim.

At the same time, please note that if payments under the agreement were made periodically, then each of them has its own limitation period.

It is possible that the argument, in essence of the dispute, may become a counterclaim. It may include both challenging your property rights and collecting a debt.

Let's take this situation. The supplier collects funds for unpaid goods. However, the buyer can also present his demands, especially in cases where the transfer of things occurred untimely.

As a result, a set-off is quite likely. A counterclaim, like the initial one, requires payment of a state fee in the established amount for both property and non-property claims.