The draft law on amendments to the Civil Procedural Code (specifically, the hearing of private complaints by a court of appeal, prosecutor’s reports on trial court rulings) has been developed by the Ministry of Justice under the resolution No. 29-P of the Russian Constitutional Court dated 30 November 2012.
The draft law proposes amendments to articles 2445, 2446, 24410 and 333 of the Civil Procedural Code. The new version would provide additional procedural guarantees to the rights of those involved in a case. Thus, the trial court is responsible for informing the parties in the case of the private complaint, and a prosecutor’s report on the trial court ruling by sending them a copy of a private complaint, a prosecutor’s report and supporting documents. The draft law expands the list of trial court rulings, the legality and relevance of which are reviewed by the court of appeal that is bound to inform the parties involved in the case of when and where the private complaint and the prosecutor’s report will be heard.
The draft law stipulates that the parties must also be informed if the court ruling to be appealed was issued at a hearing that informs the parties in the case, and the court of appeal resolved to hear the private complaint and the prosecutor’s report according to the trial court procedure under Article 330 Section 5 of the Civil Procedural Code.
Additionally, the draft law grants the court of appeal with the right to summon the parties in the case to a court hearing and inform them of when and where the private complaint and the prosecutor’s report will be heard regardless of the type of the court ruling being appealed and taking into account the nature and complexity of the procedural matter.
The amendments to Article 332 and Part Six of the new version of Article 333 of the Civil Procedural Code proposed by the draft law set different procedural terms for hearing private complaints, prosecutor’s reports on certain cases in the court of appeal.
The draft law provides for guaranteeing the litigation to be based on competition and equality of the parties.
The draft bill will be discussed at a Government meeting.
