During the legal process, civil cases become overgrown with a lot of unnecessary paperwork, and the response to the defendants’ objections falls precisely into this category. Reviews of objections have no procedural value, they are unlikely to be studied by the court and are of benefit only to lawyers who receive a fee for each document drawn up. Files in .DOC: Form of response to the defendant’s objection in civil proceedingsSample response to the defendant’s objection in civil proceedings
Why is this necessary?
We in no way undertake to dissuade you from drawing up a response to objections if you want to draw it up, especially since the law does not limit the right of participants in the process to draw up written documents with or without reason.
Any practicing lawyer understands that a civil case in most cases is a more or less hostile confrontation between two parties, during which every action or word of one side necessarily faces opposition from the other side.
Therefore, it is quite understandable that the defendant’s objections to the claim, in which the claims are contested, provoke a response from the plaintiff, who with every action tries to tip the scales of Themis on his side. For these reasons, a response is written to the objections, opposing motions are filed on the submitted motions, etc.
What to consider when objecting to a claim
The defendant must be familiar with any statement of claim in advance. This applies to both civil and arbitration proceedings.
In this case, the entire package of materials can be sent by both the plaintiff and the court.
Having received the claim and its attachments, you need to conduct a thorough analysis of all documents.
To prepare the review, all inconsistencies and contradictions in the documents submitted by the plaintiff are taken into account. For example, there may be errors in calculations, dates, and so on. Below is a sample objection that can be edited to suit your specific situation.
Next you should start developing your own legal position. It may be based on your own documents and other information that will refute the claims.
Is there any benefit
In our opinion, there is and cannot be any practical benefit from responding to objections. We have already said above that, most likely, the judge, although he will accept the review and attach it to the case materials, is unlikely to familiarize himself with its contents.
Proponents of writing reviews of objections argue that such reviews can be an option for clarifying claims. Actually this is not true.
To clarify the claims, no equivalents or options are needed, since there is such a procedural document as an application to change the claims. It is filed at the court hearing at the request of the plaintiff, with the petition being entered into the protocol and the application attached to the case materials. Moreover, the statement can be made orally, and the essence of the changes will be included in the protocol.
That is, a response in no way and under any circumstances can be the equivalent of a statement to clarify the claims.
Objections to the statement of claim against the plaintiff’s arguments
The defendant has the right to object to the claim orally.
In this case, the arguments regarding disagreement with the demands presented will be transcribed using an audio recording of the court hearing and must be recorded in the minutes.
Objections to the claim may be aimed at indicating the presence of procedural errors in the received document or an incorrect choice of rules governing the current situation.
The complex of violations seen in the claim must be presented in its entirety, and in no case should it be focused only on formal grounds for refusing to satisfy it.
The stated circumstance only emphasizes the importance of an objection to the claim and, accordingly, the need for completeness of its formulation.
The only pro
The point in writing a response to objections appears only when the arguments of the objections relate to the impossibility of considering the claim by the court, for example:
- allegations that the plaintiff missed the statute of limitations;
- allegations that the plaintiff is inappropriate;
- allegations that the court had previously made a decision on the same issue.
But here, too, the benefit of responding to objections is very conditional. The fact is that the objection stage is the stage when the court has already accepted the claim for consideration. This means that a court hearing will be held in which the plaintiff will have the opportunity to orally refute the defendant’s allegations.
Is it necessary to write
Article 131 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation regulates the rules for sending a document.
The norm places the responsibility on the defendant to forward objections to the process and to the persons participating in the case. Other participants in the case, unlike the defendant, have the right to either provide explanations or refrain from providing them. Are you preparing for trial? Before drawing up documents, study court decisions on similar cases. The database of judicial practice in ConsultantPlus will help you find them (get free access to it by clicking on the link below). The database contains decisions of all Russian courts, and the search is as simple as in Yandex. Be sure to refer to those cases that the court decided “in your” favor.
If you want to write a review
Our main task is to help you draw up procedural documents, so if you decide that writing a response to objections is necessary for you, we will tell you how to compose it.
First of all, it should be clear that a response to objections is a refutation of the arguments of the objections, that is, the incorrect information, in the opinion of the plaintiff, that the defendant presented in the objections.
If the defendant referred in his objections to certain facts that the plaintiff does not like, these facts will need to be refuted. And this is another argument against writing reviews to objections. The fact is that legal proceedings are an adversarial process, and any competition implies tactics for conducting it.
It is much better not to show all the trump cards in a response to objections, but to save them for the court hearing. By opening his cards, the plaintiff warns the defendant in advance about the direction in which he will protect his interests and thus gives him time to develop a counterposition.
Examples of objections to a claim in civil proceedings
The case of a road accident is far from the only one when there is a need to replace a party. By way of illustration, here are a few more situations that illustrate the types of defendant’s objections .
The neighbors above flooded the apartment due to a break in the heating riser. The initial claim was brought against the owner of the residential premises. However, in his explanations, he wrote that responsibility rests with the management company. After all, it is she who is in charge of intra-house communications.
The bank turned to the borrower to collect the debt on the loan, the repayment period of which came 4 years ago. In his objections, the citizen wrote that the statute of limitations on the loan of 3 years had expired. In this case, reference was made to Art. Art. 196, 199 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Claims are often filed for loans issued by fraudsters. They are taken on the basis of forged, stolen documents. The objections focus on the absence of debt relations. A petition is also submitted to order a handwriting examination.
The citizen turned to her ex-husband with a claim for division of the car. In his objections, he wrote that the car was bought with money donated by his father. A copy of the donation agreement was also attached.
The plaintiff declared through the court his rights to the land plot. In turn, the defendant indicated in his objections that the territory belongs to him legally. An up-to-date extract from the Unified State Register is attached as an appendix to the case materials.
One of the heirs tried to invalidate the will due to the presence of clerical errors in it. The defendant countered that they are not a reason to challenge the document, since the will of the testator is clear.
It is possible to disagree with the demands put forward in different ways. Along with objections, a counterclaim will also be effective. It is paid with state duty on a general basis and is considered simultaneously with the original one.
Writing a review
As a general rule, reviews are drawn up in the image and likeness of a statement of claim. However, the courts are not very picky about the form of reviews, especially if they are compiled by the participants in the process themselves. Therefore, if you deviate from the structure of the statement of claim, there will be no big trouble.
The response to the objections should begin with the name of the court to which the response will be submitted. The following are in sequential order:
- Full name and address of the author of the review;
- Full name and address of the defendant;
- Title of the document. For example, “Response to the objections provided by the defendant in civil case No. 2-683/21 on the claim of Ivanov I.I. to Petrova A.A";
- descriptive part. It should begin ad ovo, that is, with the fact that on such and such a date the claim of the plaintiff against the defendant was sent to the court (magistrate judge). After reviewing the claim, the defendant presented his objections to it, with which the plaintiff does not agree;
- motivational part. In this part, the plaintiff must justify his disagreement with the arguments of the objections;
- a conclusion in which one should finally express one’s attitude towards the objections as unfounded;
- applications. Ideally, only that which challenges some specific arguments of the objections can be attached to the review;
- date and signature of the plaintiff.
Let us repeat that everything that can be indicated in a written response to objections can be stated with even greater success orally at a court hearing.
How to object to the merits of a claim and what questions the defendant has
Upon receipt of a notice from the court, the defendant has the question of drawing up a written objection to the claim. Let's understand the concepts.
In any legal process (with the exception of criminal proceedings), as a rule, two parties take part in the case: the plaintiff and the defendant. Each of them has its own rights.
We recommend! Resolution of civil disputes in court
In particular, the defendant has the right to present his objections to the essence of the claims presented. In this way, the principle of competition between the parties is ensured.
Often, competent objections can turn the process in the other direction. So how can you argue on the merits of a claim?
Missing the deadline for filing a response in a case considered under simplified proceedings
According to paragraph 17 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 62 of October 8, 2012 “On some issues of consideration by arbitration courts of cases in the simplified procedure” (hereinafter referred to as Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 62), when applying this norm, arbitration courts should proceed from the fact that the party must take all measures within its power to ensure that before the expiration of the period established in the ruling, the arbitration court receives the relevant document (including in electronic form) or information about the direction of such a document (for example, a telegram, telephone message and so on.). Sending a document to the arbitration court by mail without taking into account the time of delivery of correspondence cannot be recognized as a justification for the impossibility of timely submission of the document to the court, since the corresponding actions relate to circumstances depending on the party. According to Art. Art. 8, 9 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, the parties enjoy equal rights to present evidence and bear the risk of consequences of their commission or failure to perform procedural actions, including the presentation of evidence of the validity and legality of their claims or objections.
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