Jurisdiction of divorce cases: territorial and jurisdictional

Article updated: August 3, 2021.

Author: Lawyer Sergey Vladimirovich.

Today I will tell you how to correctly apply for divorce through the court, what you must do for this, what documents you will need and what problems may arise.

You will also learn how to fill out an application and pay the state fee so that there are no errors.

When is a divorce filed in court?

The most common question when a couple wants to divorce is: in what cases do we need to file for divorce in court?

A marriage is dissolved in court in three cases:

1. If you have minor children. That is, children who are under 18 years old.
2. If you do not have mutual consent to divorce. That is, if one of the spouses does not want to voluntarily divorce. And the second one just can’t convince him.
3. If both spouses want a divorce, but one of you is not ready to go to the registry office.

Example: There are spouses Vladimir and Anna. They have no children, but Tatyana is categorically against divorce, and Vladimir has been wanting to do it for several months. In this situation, Vladimir will have to draw up a statement of claim and go to court.

But if you do not have children under 18 years of age and there is mutual consent to divorce, then you need to get a divorce through the registry office.

Legislation on the timing of divorce

The legislation of the Russian Federation does not give a specific answer to the question of how long the divorce process lasts. It all depends on the specific situation.

The legislation defines only a minimum - 1 month if the divorce is carried out through the registry office, and 2 months if the spouses are divorced in court.

There are often situations when spouses seek to file a divorce before the required minimum period (for example, they urgently need to leave for another country as a free person). It is impossible to achieve such a goal. The law does not provide for exceptions.

If somehow you managed to circumvent the requirements of the law, and the divorce was filed ahead of schedule, the procedure is considered invalid.

Consequences of a divorce filed prematurely:

• maintaining the joint ownership regime;
• preservation of the right of inheritance of the surviving spouse;
• a newly registered marriage is invalid by law, etc.

According to Article 294 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it is impossible to interfere with the work of the court in order to shorten the period provided for by law. Such actions are punishable by up to 2 years in prison. If a judge took part in the illegal scheme, he will be tried under Article 305 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (up to 4 years in prison).

Documents for divorce through the registry office

To divorce a marriage through court, you will need the following documents:

1. Identity document. Most often this is a passport. You need to make 3 copies. You also need a copy of the page that shows the registration address.
2. Statement of claim . A sample application can be taken in court, or downloaded from our website below.
3. Marriage registration certificate. Make 3 copies too. If you have lost the original, then you need to get a duplicate from the registry office.
4. Extract from the defendant's house register . It is needed if the claim is filed at the defendant’s place of residence. Or if you have an extract from the Russian register, which indicates the owners, then you can attach it.
5. Copies of the birth certificate of minor children , if you have children.
6. Receipt for payment of state duty . The receipt can be paid at most banks, even online.
7. Notarized power of attorney for your representative, lawyer or attorney who will go to court. Such a power of attorney is only needed when you do not want to deal with the divorce yourself.

If everything is in order with the documents submitted to the court, you will be given a date for consideration of your case within two weeks.

In 2021, the fee for divorce through the court is 600 rubles.

If the divorce is with a woman who is pregnant or who gave birth less than a year ago, then the divorce can only be done with her consent. Therefore, it is better to take such consent in writing and attach it to the statement of claim.

How to choose a court, where to go

The statement of claim must be filed with the court at the place of residence of the defendant, that is, the second spouse.

You can call the office of any court in your city and find out which houses fall under its jurisdiction. Or you can ask our lawyer this question in chat.

But what to do if the second spouse lives far away or in another city altogether and you do not have the opportunity to go there. There are 2 situations when you can go to court at your place of residence:

1. are unable to get to the defendant’s place of residence due to health reasons For example, you recently had surgery and can provide a certificate. Or if you have chronic diseases that you can confirm.
2. If you are raising minor children . And it doesn’t matter whether these are common affairs or not. The main thing is to provide their birth certificates and confirm that they live with you.

If the second spouse lives in another city and you do not want to travel there, then you can send all the documents by mail. Also, the application must be accompanied by a petition stating that you are asking to consider the case without your participation.

A sample petition stating that you are asking for the case to be considered without your participation. It must be sent by mail along with all other documents in several copies.

How to shorten the divorce process

Many people, due to their busy lives, do not have time for meetings related to the divorce process. Therefore, the question of reducing the terms of divorce as much as possible remains relevant.

Ways to shorten the divorce process:

1. Correct filling of applications. If you understand that you are not able to cope with such a task on your own, contact a law firm. You will be assigned a specialist who deals with family matters. If the application is filled out incorrectly, it will have to be withdrawn and resubmitted, which is an extra time investment.
2. Study the duties of officials. There are unscrupulous employees locally who, due to laziness or some other reasons, unreasonably delay certain divorce proceedings. Unscrupulous behavior by officials can be combatted by filing complaints with the appropriate authorities.
3. Take the time to prepare the necessary certificates from the police or clinics. This will speed up the court's decision-making process. We are talking, for example, about situations where a divorce is carried out due to beatings. The same applies to the preparation of certificates of income of the parties in case of divorce with children.
4. Child support obligations can be settled out of court.
5. If the spouses are peaceful, an agreement on the children (place of further residence, communication with the second parent, etc.) and on the division of joint property should be drawn up in advance. All this significantly speeds up the divorce process.

Magistrate or district court for divorce

This is one of the most important points, especially after the changes that took place in 2021. Now you can submit documents to the magistrate’s court if 2 conditions are met:

1. If you have no property disputes. That is, you have agreed who will get the apartment, the car, and who will pay off the mortgage and in what parts. You also decided who takes the furniture and money from the general accounts.
2. You do not have common minor children, there are no disputes or disagreements regarding child support or the procedure for communicating with the child.

In all other cases, you need to contact the district court. Here are the main situations when a claim must be filed in a district or city court:

• You don’t know who will pay the mortgage , since the spouses have very different incomes and salaries.
• Do you have questions about who will own the car that you bought during marriage?
• There are claims that someone invested the donated money in common property or in apartment renovations.
• Someone's parents sold their apartment and invested the money to buy housing for their spouses. Now it is not clear how to divide this share.
• There are questions for each other about who will pay child support and what amount it will be. There are also disputes over who will pay the additional costs of the children.
• You cannot agree on the procedure for communicating with children ; there is no agreement on how many days the child will spend with each parent.

Arbitrage practice

The case was heard by the Dmitrov City Court of the Moscow Region in July 2021.

The husband asked the court to recognize the following requirements:

1. End your marital relationship with your wife.
2. Divide the common property acquired in the marriage in the following proportion:
3. Divide the house and plot of land 50% each.
4. Transfer the car to the defendant and assign an amount of compensation for it in favor of the second party of 125,000 rubles.
5. Transfer another car to the plaintiff and assign an amount of compensation for it in favor of the second party of 325,000 rubles.

During the meeting, the husband did not renounce his claims and asked to recognize them in full. In turn, the wife admitted the claim and did not file any objections to it.

After carefully listening to the parties and studying the evidence, the judge formulated the following conclusions:

1. The marriage has actually broken down, the husband does not want to take time for reconciliation, but the wife agrees with him. Therefore, the court does not see the point in continuing the family relationship of the spouses and has no reason to refuse a divorce.
2. Since the court did not find a marriage agreement or other document reliably confirming the position of each spouse regarding joint property, according to the law it divides the house and land equally.
3. Since the wife agrees with the husband’s legal claims regarding the cars, the court agrees with the division of the cars according to the conditions proposed by the plaintiff.

Statement of claim and sample for divorce through court

You can fill out the application yourself or download it from our website and fill in the blanks with your details.

At the top of the statement of claim, indicate the address and name of the court to which you will submit documents. The address can be found on the court website or call the office.

On the right, enter your information and the defendant’s information. This is the address, your full name and the telephone number at which the assistant judge can call you to inform you of the date of the hearing.

Next write:

1. The date and place where your marriage was registered. This information is on the marriage certificate.
2. List all common children under 18 years of age. Moreover, children could be born both during marriage and before registration. The main thing is that they are common. If you adopted a child during your marriage, this must also be indicated.
3. Write the date when you stopped living together and running a household. This will help the judge understand whether you should be given time to reconcile. The judge may give 1-2 months for reconciliation. But if you haven’t lived together for a year, then you can be divorced even in one meeting.
4. Indicate that you no longer plan to live together.

Now fill out the bottom part of the application. To do this, after the word - please write your requirements. Most often they ask:

• Divorce a marriage without reconciliation.
• Set child support as a fixed amount or as a percentage of income.
• Divide property , debts, loans, money in bank accounts.
• Establish child support for the mother of the child if he is under 3 years old.
• Set time for communication with the child for each parent, determine weekends when you can pick up the child. And also decide with whom the child will spend the holidays.

Please sign and date below. Now the documents can be taken to court or sent by registered mail.

Remember that you will indicate the requirements for division of property in a separate statement of claim if you do not want to delay the divorce procedure.

For example, if you have expensive property or a mortgage, then it is more convenient to file a separate claim for the division of this property. Or maybe after the trial you will be able to come to an amicable agreement.

How does divorce court work?

Now I will briefly tell you what happens in the courtroom. First, you must be given a date for your first meeting. You will be informed about this in the summons or the assistant judge will call you.

If at the first meeting the spouses decide that they are ready to divorce, then the decision can be made on the same day. But you will have to wait another 30 days for it to come into force.

If someone cannot or does not want to come in person, then a written consent to divorce can be drawn up. The application can be downloaded below.

If one of the spouses refuses to divorce, then the court will give from one to three months for reconciliation.

If the opinion does not change by the second meeting, the court will most likely decide on divorce.

If the second spouse ignores the summons and does not come to court 3 times, then the marriage will be dissolved without his participation after the third court hearing.

What circumstances influence the duration of the process?

There are circumstances that delay the duration of the divorce process for a period of up to six months. To avoid this, it is recommended to study individual situations.

Defendant's failure to appear in court

Some people mistakenly believe that systematic failure to show up will save the family. It all depends on the reasons for missing a meeting:

Disputes between spouses

Consideration of a divorce case in the presence of disputes takes up to 2 months. Along with the divorce process, additional disputes may arise, in which case the conciliation period may increase - up to 5 months. Additional disputes should be understood as:

• collection of alimony;
• property division;
• determination of the child’s place of residence with one of the parents.

Issues are resolved within one proceeding.

Disagreement of one of the parties

The defendant’s objection is the basis for setting a period for reconciliation of 1 to 3 months. Time is given to the parties to establish relationships and preserve the family. When, after the expiration of the specified period, the initiator insists on divorce, the claim is granted.

Do I need to go to the registry office after receiving a court decision?

After you receive a divorce decision, you need to contact the registry office.

This is necessary to enter the fact of divorce into the general database and obtain certificates of divorce. You need to contact the registry office at your place of residence or the registry office where the marriage was registered.

Take the following documents with you:

1. Passports of both spouses.
2. Court decision on divorce. The decision must bear a blue seal, which is placed in the court office.
3. Statement that you want to obtain a divorce certificate.
4. Receipt for payment of the state fee from each spouse for obtaining the certificate. In 2021, this duty will be 650 rubles . The exact amount can always be found in Article 333.26 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation.
5. Enhanced qualified electronic signature of both spouses if the application is submitted through government services.

A divorce certificate is usually issued on the day of application.

How to divorce a foreigner through court

According to our laws, a divorce from a foreigner is no different from a divorce from a citizen of the Russian Federation.

You need to submit the same documents that I talked about above. But all documents in a foreign language must be translated and certified by a notary.

Usually notaries themselves tell you which company can do the translation.

If you registered your marriage in another country, then the marriage registration certificate must be translated and legalized according to the laws of the Russian Federation.

How to invalidate a marriage

If the marriage is declared invalid, then both spouses are released from all responsibilities of the former spouses. For example, it will be possible not to divide common property.

There are 5 situations when you need to file a petition for annulment of marriage instead of a divorce.

1. If one of the spouses hid that he had been married before and did not dissolve it .
   Often such situations occur with citizens of other countries. Our registry office has no way to check whether this person was married in his country or not. The only proof can be a certificate stating that the person was not married in his or her state.
2. If one of the spouses entered into a forced marriage . For example, when a girl is forced into marriage or threatened.
3. If at the time of marriage one of you was under 18 years of age and did not have a marriage license. Such permission is given only if the girl is pregnant.
4. When the spouses are immediate relatives or the adoptive parent and the adopted child. They are required to report this information to the registry office.
5. If one of the spouses was declared incompetent by the court at the time of marriage . Moreover, there must be a court decision on this.

Territorial jurisdiction for divorce

The decision on the territory of which locality will consider the dispute is made on the basis of law or within the framework of an agreement between the participants.
If the spouses have independently resolved all conflicts and continue to communicate, then they have the right to agree in which city the court proceedings will be considered. Otherwise, the plaintiff is obliged to send a statement of claim to the court located in the region of residence of the defendant.

Exception:

• the defendant's residential address is unknown;
• the applicant has minor children or incapacitated relatives in his care;
• The plaintiff's health condition does not allow him to travel between different cities.

Remember the main thing:

1. You need to get a divorce through the court if you have children under 18 years of age. You also need to go to court if one of the spouses is against divorce.
2. The state fee is 600 rubles for filing an application. You also need to pay 650 rubles for obtaining a divorce certificate.
3. You can apply for alimony immediately with your divorce petition.
4. You can divide property immediately, or you can file a separate claim within 3 years after the divorce.
5. To divorce a foreigner, you need to have documents translated. You also need to legalize documents from a notary.
6. The divorce will last a minimum of 30 days. But most often it drags on for 2 months.