Simplified lawsuit of civil proceedings in Ukraine: the challenges of the first year of application in judicial practice

Abstract

As a result of the reform of the Ukrainian civil procedural law in 2017, civil justice has undergone significant changes – in courts of first instance may consider civil cases in a general procedure or in a simplified order. At the same time, the simplified procedure provides for two options: ordinary proceedings with court hearings or written proceedings, in which case proceedings are conducted without summoning of parties and without a court hearings. A generalization of the court practice of the courts of first instance, as a result of the analysis of 258 court decisions of first instance courts, approved during 2018 and available for research on the Single court decisions system website, provides an opportunity to highlight the most pressing issues arising in judicial practice and to suggest ways of their solution. Consequently, the problem of differentiation and the determination by courts of grounds for the consideration of civil cases is the subject of our attention in this article. To summarize, it was noted that court decisions mentioned in this part lack references to Part 1 of Art. 11 and Part 3 of Art. 274 CPC 2017 and, therefore, have no explanation as to why the case is being considered under simplified procedure and is classified as small claim or as a case which priority is a quick resolution of the case. In particular, these are cases concerning housing rights of citizens, recovery of alimony payments for the maintenance of young children, and the determination of the place of residence of young children. Authors concluded that in the legislation of other states, cases which are considered under simplified procedure are differentiated according to the value of claim, as well as to the specific category (Civil Procedures Rules 26.6 and 27.1, any claims with a value not exceeding 10,000 pounds, with special conditions concerning claims for damages revocation and claims of a tenant of a residential property to a lessor). At the same time, when deciding on the procedure for consideration of a case, the provisions of Part 1 of Art. 11 and part 3 of Article 274 should be used based on the principle of proportionality of civil proceedings and para 2 of Part 4 of Art 19 CPC 2017. In view of this, it is considered appropriate to draw attention to motivating the courts` decisions, as well as wider application of the provisions of the principles of proportionality of civil judicial proceedings and cooperation between the parties and the court to ensure the realization of the main task - effective protection of violated claimant`s rights.