In the modern realities of life, situations often arise that require the intervention of judicial authorities. This may be a personal conflict, a dispute over financial matters or claims, a dispute about the establishment of liability or, conversely, its deprivation. In any of the situations that arise, a citizen must know where to file a lawsuit.
Self-Service Benefits
There are two ways to apply to a court with a lawsuit: apply to a legal office and submit an application yourself. In the first case, a lawyer will take up the case, file a lawsuit and will represent interests in court. However, such measures are justified in complex cases requiring legal knowledge and justification. The plaintiff may very well be filing an application.
Disadvantages of contacting a legal office
The disadvantages of attracting a lawyer are significant financial costs for consultants. An example is a lawsuit on issues of violation of product quality. The price of the claim is small and does not exceed, as a rule, the amount of 5000-10000 rubles. And the costs of a lawyer in Moscow start at 15,000 rubles. The client will lose more funds for the services of a lawyer than will benefit from the satisfaction of the claim amount. The applicant must know where to file a claim for consumer protection, and not overpay third parties for legal advice.
In the case of a routine case, and having evidence of correctness on hand, you can get by in court on your own, not involving a third-party lawyer and not overpaying for his services.
Before applying to the judicial authorities with a statement, it is worth trying to resolve the conflict situation peacefully. To do this, it is better to draw up a settlement agreement in writing. If the parties agree to resolve the conflict peacefully, the plaintiff will have written evidence of intent. In case of non-fulfillment of the peace agreement, the plaintiff may confirm the violation of the agreement by the defendant. If the defendant refuses the peace treaty, then at the meeting this will serve as evidence that they tried to resolve the dispute by joint efforts in the pretrial order, but failed.
Where to file a lawsuit
If it was not possible to resolve the dispute before the meeting, the party to the conflict will have to file a petition with the court to resolve the situation. Before you fill out a statement of claim, you should definitely find out which authority you need to contact.
An appeal to the court can be submitted both at the place of residence of the applicant and at the location of the defendant. But in practice, applications are most often filed at the place of residence of the defendant, if they are an individual.
If a citizen has a conflict situation regarding the delay in wages, then to resolve the issue of where to file a lawsuit in the court against the employer for a delay in wages, you must contact the authorities at the place of registration of the legal entity.
In the settlement of civil law relations involving a world or district court. The first type of institution is involved in matters that fall under the qualifications of the first court:
- criminal cases for offenses in which the maximum penalty is limited to three years in prison;
- civil cases related to the issuance of a court order;
- civil relations for the divorce of spouses, the separation of marital property (if the amount is not more than 50,000 rubles), other family relationships, with the exception of adoption, establishment of parental rights or their deprivation;
- on conflicts of an economic nature, if the amount of the claim is not more than 50,000 rubles, with the exception of inheritance cases and intellectual property issues;
- cases on establishing the procedure for using property.
Where to file a lawsuit in court if the situation does not fall into any of the above categories? In the district.
Where to file an application if the parties to the dispute live in different cities
There are times when the defendant and the plaintiff are in different regions of the country or cities. Then the plaintiff needs to decide where to file a lawsuit in court if the defendant lives in another city. In this case, usually the lawsuit is filed at the location of the defendant. But in this situation, exceptions arise. If the application to the court concerns the determination and collection of alimony, the termination of marital vows or the protection of the interests of consumers, the applicant has the right to determine the territorial location of the court to file a claim.
If a lawsuit is filed against a citizen whose address of residence at the time of filing the application could not be established, then a claim can be filed at the address of the defendant's last known place of residence. In case of violation of the terms of the contract or product quality, in disputes with a legal entity, a lawsuit may be filed at the location of both the head office and the branch.
Where to file a lawsuit if the defendant lives in another city? This information can be found in Article 29 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation “Jurisdiction for the choice of the plaintiff”. It considers situations in which an application is submitted in the name of a legal entity, for the recovery of alimony, for compensation for harm caused, and a number of others.
Application Form
Before going to court with a lawsuit, you must carefully study the sample form and the requirements for its completion. In the future, the correct presentation of the case and filling out the application may play an important role in making the decision.
The application to the court is submitted exclusively in writing, printed or hand-written on paper. If it is filled in with one's own hand, then the text should be clear, not contain corrections and clearly express the requirements. The text of the statement should not exceed 3 pages.
In the upper corner on the right side of the sheet, the name and address where the statement of claim is filed with the court are indicated. Under it indicate the full details of the plaintiff, address of residence with telephone number and email address. The same data is indicated to the respondent.
If the claim is written in the direction of the legal entity, then, in addition to the name, indicate the actual address of the location, contact numbers, mail address. If several persons appear to be the defendants in the case, then they all are indicated in the application, under serial numbers: defendant 1, defendant 2, and so on.
The main part of the claim shall indicate the requirements put forward by the plaintiff, which serve as the basis for filing a claim in court. At the end of the statement of claim, the filing date of the application, the signature of the plaintiff, and a list of all documents or their copies that will be presented as evidence in the case are indicated.
Documents required for filing a statement of claim
According to article 132 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, when applying to the court, the following documents are required to be attached to it:
- original document on payment of state duty;
- copy of passport or power of attorney for representation of interests, with notarization;
- if a refund is required, then a statement of claim must be submitted with a calculation of the amount of the claim;
- documents confirming the legitimacy of the statement of claim;
- a document or legal act if the applicant files a claim for revocation of the document;
- if the plaintiff cannot attend the court hearings, then it is necessary to write and sign a statement and a motion to consider the case without the personal presence of the plaintiff.
The statement of claim and the attached documents must be in an amount equal to the number of participants in the trial. If there are more than one defendant or applicant, then all of them are provided with copies of documents and statements. The exception is only a document on payment of the fee, a copy of the passport and a power of attorney. They are made in a single copy and are provided only to the judiciary.
Situations in which it becomes necessary to file an application with the court are presented below.
Breach of contract
In entrepreneurial activity, situations often arise when one party is not able to fulfill obligations under the contract. Before deciding where to file a claim with the court (non-performance of the contract), you should find out the statute of limitations for such claims. If the supplier has not complied with the delivery conditions, the claim for such obligations will be valid for three years from the date of the buyer’s request for a refund or after the expiration of the term for fulfillment of obligations under the contract.
The essential conditions for filing an application with the court will be an assessment of the damage caused and the materiality of the breach of the contract by which the damage was established. If the answer to these questions is yes, then the plaintiff, as a legal entity, has the right to apply to the arbitration court. If the plaintiff is an individual, then the claim falls under the violation of consumer rights and is considered in a magistrate’s court.
Violation of employee rights
In the course of work, situations often arise in which the employer infringes on the rights of the employee: does not provide leave, does not pay sick leave, refuses additional payments for holidays and overtime, delays and does not pay wages. In this case, the employee has the right to sue his employer.
Before deciding where to file a lawsuit with a court against an employer, it is worth determining the limitation period for such cases. The limitation period for labor disputes is only three months. This period will be reduced to one month if the employee was dismissed without explanation of apparent reasons.
The application is filed at the location of the legal entity. When resolving such disputes, the state fee for filing an appeal with the court is not levied on the employee. The application must be accompanied by documents confirming the employment of a legal entity. And also provide a statement of income in order to justify the calculations of the statement of claim.
The construction of illegal construction
There are cases when the structure under construction has not passed legal registration in state bodies. In such situations, the plaintiff must have a court order to dismantle the building.
To determine where to file a lawsuit with the court about the demolition of the building, you need to fill out a sample and understand whether the economic damage will be assessed in the lawsuit.
If damage to the plaintiff has been caused, then the case is referred to the arbitration court, in other cases, the case will be examined by the district.
Non-payment of insurance compensation
If a situation arises when the insurance company refuses to indemnify for damage caused by the insured event, the company's client has the right to apply to the court for resolution of the conflict. In order to understand where to file a lawsuit in court with an insurance company, you need to find out the amount of the statement of claim. If it is less than 50,000 rubles, then the application is submitted to the magistrate court at the location of the insurance company. In other cases, the conflict takes over the district.
Where to file a lawsuit with the bank
When applying to the bank for credit funds, disputes arise regarding incorrectly debited amounts or incorrectly accrued interest.
The judicial authority, which should consider the plaintiff's application, can be both at the location of the bank, and the location of the plaintiff. However, lawyers most often insist on filing an application for the bank’s actions at the location of the plaintiff, since the banking structure may have an impact on the judiciary, which are located in the territory of the bank.
When contesting the place of consideration of the claim, the applicant may refer to the Law on Protection of Consumer Rights and Article 29 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, according to which, in case of violation of consumer rights, a claim against a legal entity can be filed at the location of the plaintiff.
Amount of claim
In deciding where to file a lawsuit in a court in Moscow, it is worth deciding on the amount of the statement of claim. For world courts, it does not exceed 50,000 rubles; in other cases, the case is considered by the district. If a conflict situation has occurred between two legal entities, then they will solve it in the course of a peace agreement or file a lawsuit in an arbitration court.