In the framework of the implementation of the legal equality of the parties, it is necessary to develop mechanisms for protecting private law. Any legal action must be documented. A special form indicating compliance with the law is a procedural document.
Concept, features and functions.
The term “procedural documents” is quite comprehensive and meaningful in meaning. Consider several different formulations of this concept:
1. Procedural documents are acts of the implementation of legal standards that ensure compliance with legal behavior by subjects of civil law interaction.
As an act of enforcement of legal norms, a procedural document has a number of distinguishing features:
- is a form of expression of any action or decision on the part of state bodies, authorized officials;
- carries a state expression of will that requires strict compliance and enforcement;
- assumes a special form regulated by law;
- implies the personified nature of the regulation of civil law relations.
2. Procedural documents are the outgoing materials provided by participants in legal relations (state bodies, officials, legal entities, individuals) in the course of legal proceedings.
Procedural documents, being an integral part of any legal relationship, carry out a number of important functions:
- Informative - is the content of the necessary information about persons, things, events, acts of legal significance.
- Identifying - assumes the presence of certain attributes, details that justify the legal force of the act, as well as determining the information contained therein.
- Law enforcement - organizes the execution of documented legal norms in the framework of a specific civil law case.
- Security and protective - is to ensure the safety of important information, the implementation of protective measures to comply with their reliability and safety.
- Operational - implies the possibility of applying and transmitting information by subjects of legal relations.
3. Procedural documents - these are special forms of recording actions and decisions of subjects of legal relations, allowing to monitor the proceedings.
Classification of procedural documents
First of all, it is necessary to find out what procedural documents take place within the framework of the legislation of the Russian Federation. Specialists distinguish several different classifications.
Based on one of them, all procedural acts are divided into two large groups:
- pre-trial value;
- judicial acts.
According to their functional purpose, acts of execution and execution of legislative norms are divided as follows:
- statements (appeals);
- Protocols
- regulations;
- complaints
- executive documents;
- protests;
- petitions.
The main types of procedural documents are divided according to the law. Among them are distinguished:
- Civil procedural documents that ensure the rule of law in civil matters.
- Materials compiled in arbitration proceedings.
- Administrative procedural documents that guarantee the legality of administrative cases.
- Acts affecting constitutional norms.
- Criminal procedural documents related to the rule of law in criminal cases.
According to the law enforcement form may be:
- regulatory, based on the application of legal norms and aimed at the effective regulation of various legitimate acts;
- law enforcement related to the implementation of legislative sanctions of a preventive and punitive nature.
Procedural materials are also divided into several types, based on their structure:
- Acts, consisting of four parts: introductory, descriptive, motivational, resolutive (decision, sentence).
- Acts having three parts, not including a motivating part.
- Acts of two parts: introductory and resolutive.
- Acts containing only a decision.
According to the legal purpose, the procedural documents of the court are divided into two categories:
- The main ones. This type of material carries a fully completed decision regarding a specific legal case.
- Auxiliary. These are procedural documents that set out preliminary information, prescriptions aimed at preparing the main legal acts.
Requirements for paperwork of courts
Judicial procedural documents are materials coming from the court. These include: decisions, rulings, court orders, protocols, acts drawn up in the order and executive format.
The structure of the procedural documents of the court consists of four subsections:
- Introductory. It fixes the name, location of the judicial organization, the time period for the decision, the composition of the participants or legally interested persons, the subject of the case is approved.
- Descriptive. It contains indications of the conditions and circumstances of the situation, includes claims and objections of the subjects of legal relations and other interested parties, including facts justifying these protests.
- Motivational. Reflects the actual and legislative justification of the court decision on the procedural act. This part may be mandatory, and may be included at the initiative of the court.
- Resolute. It involves fixing the final decisions of the judicial debate, the final conclusions that resolve the essence of the case.
Judicial decisions are taken immediately at the end of the proceedings. The operative section of the decision is read in the same court, where the case was summed up. The submitted and heard part of the decision shall be certified by the signatures of all judges and attached to the case.
The following requirements are imposed on the court decision:
- legality;
- validity;
- justice.
The execution of a reasoned court decision should not exceed five days from the date of completion of the proceedings.
Features of documentation in civil cases
The main task of civil litigation is to ensure the protection of the rights and freedoms, interests of civilians, organizations and other parties to legal relations. According to Article 2 of Part 1 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, every citizen has the right to appeal to the court in the event that his rights and freedoms are violated. The statement of claim is the form of a statement to protect one’s interests in court. The compilation of this document is strictly regulated at the legislative level. If necessary, samples of procedural documents can be found in the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation.
Among the requirements for the preparation of the statement of claim, the following can be distinguished:
- Fixing the name of the judicial institution where the document is provided.
- Indication of personal data of the defendant (full name, address of residence).
- Description of the subject of the violation or the existence of a threat of violation of rights, as well as the presentation of claims.
- Disclosure of circumstances that are evidence of these violations.
- Availability of valuation characteristics, if necessary (recoverable, disputed amount of money).
- Indication of the list of annexes to the application.
This act cannot be drawn up in free form, so the help of specialists is often required.
Administrative proceedings
In the production of procedural documents on administrative cases, four main groups are distinguished:
1. Decisions made by authorized bodies related to intermediate stages of the process:
- initial (protocols on administrative offenses) with which legal cases begin;
- interim (decisions to conduct an examination) describing the subsequent development of cases;
- final, including final decisions at certain stages and on the basis of the procedure as a whole.
2. Materials sent from other participants in procedural cases or addressed to state bodies: statements of claim, complaints, petitions.
3. Documents fixing conclusions on certain legal actions, serving as the basis for evidence (protocols of examinations, interrogations).
4. Technical and information documentation (inventory, presentation).
The procedural documents of administrative proceedings include:
- explanations of persons involved in the process (suspect, victims, legal representatives), submitted in writing;
- petitions or challenges;
- various complaints (decisions on the case, decisions made, the results of complaints), etc.
Documents relating to acts of an executive nature and directly related to judicial proceedings may be executed in the form of an application. It is submitted either to the bailiffs or directly to the court.
Criminal Procedure Documents
Thus we approached the criminal case. It should be noted right away that there is no clear definition of the term “procedural documents” in criminal law. However, the documents themselves provide for regulations regarding their form and content.
Materials of criminal proceedings have various names. In order to systematize the procedural documentation of a criminal nature is divided into two large groups:
1. Information and certification. It is an act that implements the interaction of authorized bodies and officials with other parties to the judicial process. These include various types of instructions, instructions, requirements, subscriptions, obligations, explanations, etc. The following subgroups are distinguished here:
- acts ensuring interaction between the parties to the judicial process, as well as the exercise of powers of representatives of state structures;
- protocols of investigation and court proceedings, consisting in the collection, study, verification, analysis of evidence;
- Protocols of other procedural acts.
2. The power and administrative. It contains decisions of authorized state and officials who carry out actions in criminal trials. These include:
- sentences, rulings, court orders;
- representations of investigative structures, prosecutors, judges;
- private court rulings and requirements;
- indictments;
- jury verdicts.
The main types of procedural acts
During the preliminary work on criminal grandfathers, a large number of all kinds of documentation is compiled, which can be either mandatory or optional. Binding acts are drawn up for any criminal process by the investigative committee. They include decisions on certain issues available during the investigation, evidence and conclusions are indicated. The main procedural documents of the investigator include protocols, decisions, indictments.
Supporting or optional documents are documents of an optional nature, which are prepared depending on the specific criminal proceedings. This type of acts is represented by notifications, subscriptions, instructions, objections, summons, etc.
Protocol specificity
Any execution of procedural documents consists of two important characteristics: informational content and regulated execution. The constituent elements are largely determined by the type of document. According to the regulated component, most of the procedural acts are divided into two conditional categories: protocol and decision.
Protocols involving the fixation of the various stages of a particular case affect the presentation of information on the actions committed by the subjects, on the basis of which interim decisions are made. The content of any protocol should include the following information elements and details:
- Date, place of implementation of the procedural act.
- The time frame (beginning, end) of the legal action.
- The name of the authorized body or state official called to ensure the enforcement of the law in a specific area of public relations.
- The list of participants in the legal process, an indication of the main persons, their principals, witnesses, various specialists, etc.
- Information on explaining to all participants in the procedural actions their rights and obligations.
- Information about the use of special tools in the preparation of a specific procedural protocol.
- The content of the act.
- The result obtained by the implementation of certain procedural actions.
- The written consent of the parties in the form of a signature.
- Comments and annex to the protocol are provided.
Features of Decisions
Decisions are documents that act as a form of state expression aimed at a specific person on the basis of facts confirmed in court. The decision should consist of several parts: introductory, descriptive and motivational, resolutive.
The first part of the document must indicate its name, date and place of execution. It also includes a listing of authorized government and officials and fixing the name of the subject of consideration.
The descriptive and motivational component includes an account of specific circumstances, facts, which have an evidence base. An analytical layout is provided for the established circumstances, the arguments are substantiated, the legal qualification of the legal relationship is determined, and references to regulatory laws governing them are recorded.
The operative part contains the wording of the approved decision, an explanation of the timing and order of entry into force and possible appeal. Samples of procedural documents for filing an appeal at the request of citizens are provided by authorized persons. The final part of the decision is certified by signature (s) and seal.
General principles for the preparation of procedural documents
The legislation of the Russian Federation has certain rules for the preparation of any procedural act. If the requirements are not complied with, the document may be declared invalid. The formation of a document of a procedural nature should be built in accordance with the basic principles:
- Legality. It is provided with full compliance with the norms of procedural law applicable to specific legal relations.
- Expediency. It is certified by the commission of exclusively necessary and sufficient acts in the preparation and execution of the act.
- Validity. It is confirmed by significant facts that do not require evidence, or formulated on the basis of verified evidence that meets the requirements of the law.
- The content. It is determined by complete and exhaustive information about persons and objects of legal importance for the conduct of the judicial production process.
- Certainty. It implies the presence of clear and understandable language, the personification of subjective rights and legal duties of civilians.
- Logicality. It follows from a reasonable and regular sequence of presentation of the content and evidence parts of the document.
- Brevity. It is formed by means of a clear and concise description of events and things without the use of long, blurry, irrelevant phrases.
- Democracy. It is implemented on the basis of the publicity and accessibility of the act for subjects of legal relations, as well as in compliance with all rights and obligations established in the procedural document.