Preliminary hearing, when is it scheduled and takes place?

For almost every civil case, a preliminary hearing is held. It marks the stage of preparation of a civil case for trial on the merits.

From October 2021, the court can schedule a preliminary hearing and then immediately proceed to the main hearing. The conditions for such “acceleration” of consideration are below.

Let us remember that preparing a case for consideration includes activities of both the parties and the court. This includes clarification of the rights and obligations of persons participating in the case, determining the range of evidence in a civil case, filing objections to the claim, etc. That is why the court holds either a preliminary court hearing or (more often if the case is under jurisdiction of magistrates) a conversation. How is such a meeting conducted? This is the subject of this publication.

When is a preliminary hearing scheduled?

After filing a claim and accepting it by the court, a court ruling is issued. It is precisely this procedural document that schedules a court hearing. The parties receive a court notice indicating the date and time of the preliminary hearing. And the very definition in which the court implements the tasks of preparing the case for trial.

Do parties have to appear at a preliminary hearing? Or send a representative by proxy to represent interests in court? We kindly ask you not to miss such a meeting. Already here the parties have the right to present evidence in a civil case, petition for the appointment of an expert examination, and make other petitions. This means that the other party can object to the request for evidence, declare its inadmissibility, and present its own arguments regarding the factual circumstances of the case.

In turn, active behavior at the stage of the preliminary court hearing can contribute to the timely consideration of the case.

How to submit a petition correctly

If there are grounds for scheduling a preliminary hearing, you are allowed to file a petition addressed to the investigator or inquiry officer who is investigating your case. It is best to contact your lawyer for this. Only a specialist will draw up the document correctly and without errors.

Important! Be sure to keep in mind that without complying with the above grounds, submitting such a document is pointless.

The petition consists of three main parts: the head, the main part and the final part.

The header contains the following information:

Full name of the investigator and his position;
name of the investigative agency;
personal data of the citizen on whose behalf the document is drawn up;
information about the person's lawyer.

Next, in the middle of the sheet, indicate the name of the document itself (petition, here is an example). The main part contains the following information:

information about the case for which the hearing will be held;
information about the citizen against whom the investigation is underway;
qualification of the offense allegedly committed by him, indicating a specific article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation;
a note that the citizen has familiarized himself with the case materials;
basis for holding a preliminary hearing;
a request to consider the case in the specified form;
requirement to hand over a copy of the response to the application to the defense attorney.

The final part contains the following data:

list of attached documents;
Date of preparation;
signature of the citizen with his transcript.

Attention! It is recommended to check the document several times before handing it over to the investigator.

If the answer is positive, a resolution is drawn up scheduling a preliminary hearing.

How to prepare for a preliminary hearing

First of all, study the court’s ruling on accepting the claim and scheduling a preliminary court hearing. The plaintiff may present to the court the originals of those documents that were annexed to the claim. The defendant may prepare a counterclaim, a response to the claim, or his own objections. The parties present their evidence to the court. In this case, they must be handed over to other participants in the case in advance. Depending on the category of the case, you can apply for the examination of evidence at the location, letters rogatory, etc.

You should appear in court early. In addition to the original documents, be sure to take your Russian passport with you (a foreign passport with a copy and a notarized translation into Russian). It is not allowed to enter the courthouse with piercing or cutting objects or prohibited substances. This should be taken care of in advance.

Reasons for carrying out

This event is possible if there is one of the following reasons:

Application to exclude evidence.
There are grounds for the prosecutor to return the case materials.
There are grounds to suspend or terminate the case.
A request by a party to conduct the trial without the accused, who is abroad and/or is avoiding appearing in court and has not been held accountable for a crime.
The accused filed a request to have a trial in front of a jury.
There is a sentence that has not become effective and provides for the suspended sentence of the accused for another act.
There is a reason to highlight the case.
Request by a party to join cases.

As you can see, a preliminary hearing in a criminal case is possible at the request of a party, or at the initiative of the court, if there are grounds.

The petition is submitted upon completion of familiarization with the case or after transfer to the court, within a three-day period from the moment when a copy of the indictment document is received by the accused.
The case material can be voluminous, consisting of a dozen volumes, each of which is 5-7 centimeters. Accordingly, familiarization with the case can take a long time. Also, when presenting the indictment document, a note must be made on what date and time it happened. Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated March 22, 2005 No. 4-P states that the above circumstances do not contradict the Constitution of the Russian Federation, because Having sent the case to court, it is not allowed to keep the accused in custody without an appropriate decision.

Purpose of holding a preliminary hearing

At such a meeting, administrative actions that were carried out at the stage of preparing the civil case are consolidated. The court gets acquainted with the parties to the case and finds out their legal position. Clarifies the range of evidence in the case, distributes the burden of proof, examines the issue of missing procedural deadlines and statute of limitations.

Already at this stage, the defendant’s filing of an application for the application of the statute of limitations may lead to a decision to refuse to satisfy the claim without considering the case on the merits. In addition, the consideration of the case may be suspended or terminated, or left without consideration. The grounds for making such procedural decisions are leaving the claim without consideration (Article 222 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation), or dismissing the case.

The importance of a preliminary hearing in child disputes cannot be underestimated. For example, when filing a claim to determine the place of residence of a child, to establish the procedure for communication with the child, the plaintiff has the right to ask the court to determine the procedure for the exercise of parental rights before the decision is made and comes into force. And this order is established already at the preliminary court hearing. But with the participation of the guardianship and trusteeship authority.

After the preliminary hearing, the court proceeds to consider the case on the merits. He either schedules the main court hearing and summons the parties and other participants in the process. Or it ends the preliminary court hearing and, with the consent of the participants in the case, immediately moves on to the main hearing.

Deadlines

The preparatory consideration of the case must be scheduled within the period of the main proceedings (Article 154 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).
In accordance with the legislative act, a response to the statement of claim must be given within 2 months from the date of receipt of the petition by the judicial authority. An exception is made for proceedings on the following grounds:

collection of alimony;
demolition of self-built buildings;
labor disputes regarding reinstatement at work;
bringing unauthorized buildings into compliance, etc.

These cases are considered within 1 month from the date of receipt of the application. The time limit does not include the time for which the meeting was postponed to reconcile the parties.

Attention! The magistrate is required to review the document and schedule a hearing within 1 month.

In Part 3 of Art. 152 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation states that an official has the right to schedule a hearing later than the established deadlines if the case is classified as complex. Time may be required in cases where research, expert assessment, etc. are necessary to clarify the circumstances.

What decisions can a judge make?

This is stated in Art. 236 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. Part 1 lists the types of decisions made by a judge at a preliminary hearing in a criminal case:

the case is referred to jurisdiction in the cases listed in part 5 of this article;
it is returned back to the prosecutor;
the investigation into the case is suspended;
it stops completely;
the case is terminated or the prosecution is terminated under Art. 25.1 of this code and a fine is imposed under Art. 104.4;
the time and date of the hearing in court is determined;
it is postponed because the suspended sentence has not yet been executed for an offense that the citizen committed earlier;
whether or not the case is separated into separate proceedings in cases the list of which is contained in the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, and the time and date of the hearing in court is selected;
whether or not individual cases are combined in the presence of factors, the list of which is in the above code, and a meeting is scheduled.

Any of these decisions is formalized in a special resolution. This is indicated in Part 2, and Part 3 states that this document also reflects the results of consideration of submitted complaints and petitions.

Note. If the investigation of the case against a citizen is terminated and instead a fine is imposed, then the resolution indicates the amount of the fine, the period and procedure for executing this preventive measure (under Part 3.1 of Article 236 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).

Let's say the judge decided to exclude evidence from the case file. Then the resolution states what specific evidence was seized and for what reasons. This is discussed in Part 4 of this article.

There are cases when the prosecutor changed the charge during the hearing. In these situations, the judge is obliged to reflect all changes that have occurred in the decision (under Part 5 of Article 236).

If during the procedure it turns out that the citizen was not given enough time to familiarize himself with the case materials, or the maximum permitted period for keeping him in custody was exceeded, the court is obliged to immediately cancel the decision on imprisonment and provide the person with time to read the case materials. Part 6 contains this information.

Is it possible to challenge the decision?

According to Part 7, decisions made by the judge during the hearing can be appealed in the manner established by Chapters 45.1 and 47.1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation. The exception is the case when there was a decision regarding the appointment of proceedings in court under paragraphs. 1, 3, 5 hours 2 tbsp. 231 code.