UNIFIED JUDICIAL INFORMATION – TELECOMMUNICATION SYSTEM: CONSEQUENCES AND SPECIFICS OF THE START OF ITS OPERATION

On December 1, 2018, the State Judicial Administration published about the establishment and operation of the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System (hereinafter - "the UJITS") in the newspaper "Holos Ukrainy".

Thus, according to transitional provisions to the Commercial Procedural Code of Ukraine, Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine and the Administrative Procedure Code of Ukraine (collectively - "Transitional Provisions"), the UJITS runs in 90 days from the day of the announcement of its establishment and operation.

Establishment and operation of the UJITS will lead to certain consequences, for example, the amendment of procedure for filing of appeals and cassation appeals by trial participants, reducing the list of grounds of stay of proceedings, in ensuring the efficiency of document circulation and the communication with the trial participants, etc.

For example, in accordance with the Transitional Provisions, appeals and cassation appeals are filed by the trial participants to the relevant courts by the day of the beginning of operation of the UJITS according to the rules that were in force in the previous editions of the codes. Also, before the day the UJITS starts functioning the court suspends the proceedings if, for example, the party filed an appeal the court decision about the closure of the proceedings, the decision to leave the claim (statement) without consideration, the decision to make or dismiss to make amendment to the judgement, etc. So, there will be no grounds for suspension of proceedings by the day the UJITS starts functioning.

It should be pointed out that the UJITS has been functioning in testing mode since January 1, 2019. Particular attention should be paid to the subsystem "E-Court", which is part of the UJITS.

Trial participants already have opportunity to file claim, appeals and cassation appeals, as well as other procedural documents, in electronic form with the help of the specified subsystem, and receive automatic notification of changes in the state of case which they participate in. The use of such a possibility has a positive effect on legal proceedings, since the trial participants have lower court fees and much faster may get to know about the progress of their procedure.

Nonetheless, as the "E-Court" subsystem functions in testing mode, there are currently some defects. First of all, one of them is a lack of some necessary templates of procedural documents in the subsystem "E-Court", therefore, some procedural documents still need to be submitted in paper form.

For example, the team of attorneys of KPD Consulting Attorneys-at-Law Partnership, during the testing of the subsystem "Electronic Court", found that the specified subsystem did not contain a template for the application for participation in a court session in a video conferencing mode. In order to complete the list with the necessary template, the relevant request was sent to the state-owned enterprise "Information Judicial Systems".

The state-owned enterprise "Information Judicial Systems" promptly considered the letter and added the application template for participation in a court session in a video conferencing mode to the subsystem "E-Court". So, now the application may be sent with the use of "E-Court".

The fact, that the state-owned enterprise "Information Judicial Systems" quickly enough considers offers, reflects that the subsystem "E-Court" will soon be able to ensure the full implementation of legal proceedings in electronic form.

Thus, the full functioning of the UJITS is expected in early March 2019, as well as certain changes in civil, economic and administrative proceedings.

Should you have any questions with respect to above or require any additional information, please do not hesitate to contact Mr. Igor Kalitventsev (i.kalitventsev@kpdconsulting.com.ua. We will be pleased to assist You. The information contained in this overview is not intended to provide legal advice and should not be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice concerning individual situations.