What is an appeal against a court decision?

An appeal is a complaint against a court decision that has not entered into legal force.

An appeal is filed if there is disagreement with the court decision. May be filed against decisions of any courts considered at first instance. Such a complaint can be filed against decisions of justices of the peace, district and city courts, regional, regional and republican courts, as well as decisions of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Persons who participated in the consideration of the civil case can file an appeal. Other citizens can file a complaint only if the decision will affect their rights and obligations; they will have to justify this fact in detail in the text of the complaint (Article 320 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation)

The appeal is considered by a higher authority - the court of appeal. The list of appellate courts is given in Article 320.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. Based on the results of consideration of the complaint, the decision may be cancelled, changed or left unchanged. The result of the consideration of the complaint is formalized by an appeal ruling. The issuance of an appeal ruling means the entry into force of a court decision.

The decision of the district court can be appealed to a higher court within 1 month from the date of its adoption. The period begins to run from the moment the reasoned decision is made. Usually, at a court hearing, the judge announces only the operative part of the decision, postponing the preparation of the full decision for up to 5 days. The judge announces the date of production of the decision in final form when announcing the decision at the end of the court hearing. If this is not done, you need to clarify the date of production of the reasoned decision in court when receiving a copy of the decision.

Controversial issue regarding the calculation of the time limit for filing an appeal

By virtue of Part 2 of Art. 321 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, an appeal or presentation may be filed within a month from the date of adoption of the court decision in final form, unless other deadlines are established by this Code.

According to Part 3 of Article 107 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the procedural period, calculated in years, months or days, begins the next day after the date or occurrence of the event that determines its beginning.

In accordance with Part 1 of Article 108 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, the procedural period, calculated in years, expires in the corresponding month and day of the last year of the period. The term, calculated in months, expires on the corresponding date of the last month of the term. If the end of a period calculated in months falls on a month that does not have a corresponding date, the period expires on the last day of that month.

This is important to know: Deadline for filing a cassation appeal under the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation

According to paragraph 6 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated June 19, 2012 No. 13 “On the application by courts of the norms of civil procedural legislation regulating proceedings in the court of appeal,” the month-long period for filing an appeal or presentation, provided for in Part 2 of Article 321 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, begins in accordance with Part 3 of Article 107 and Article 199 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation from the day following the day of drawing up a reasoned court decision (adopting a court decision in final form), and ends in accordance with Article 108 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation on the corresponding date of the next month.

Referring to these provisions, courts take different approaches to the issue of calculating the time limit for filing an appeal.

Essentially, there are two positions of the courts (let's look at an example).

The final court decision was made on July 10, 2015; the deadline for filing a complaint expired on August 10, 2015.

The period for filing an appeal begins on July 11, 2014 and expires until 24 hours 00 minutes on August 10, 2014 (August 11, 2015 will already be the first day of the second month of the countable period), therefore August 10, 2015 is the last day for filing an appeal .

The final court decision was made on July 10, 2015; the deadline for filing a complaint expired on August 11, 2015.

Rationale: the period for his appeal began from the next day, i.e. from July 11, 2015, and ended on the corresponding date of the next month, i.e. August 11, 2015. Therefore, August 11, 2015 is the last day to file an appeal

Expert opinion

So, the month-long period for filing an appeal begins from the day following the day of drawing up a reasoned court decision (adopting a court decision in final form). Nobody argues with this.

In our case, the period begins on July 11, 2015.

However, there are discrepancies regarding the end of the period.

Position No. 2 follows from the conclusion set out in paragraph 6 of the Plenum resolution. There are also rulings by the RF Armed Forces on specific cases that confirm this position.

On the other hand, by virtue of Part 2 of Art. 321 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, an appeal or presentation may be filed within a month from the date of adoption of the court decision in final form, unless other deadlines are established by this Code.

The decision was made on July 10, 2015. The period begins on July 11, 2015. The period from July 11 to August 10 is 31 calendar days (month). Thus, August 11, 2015 is outside the appeal period.

How to file an appeal against a district court decision

An appeal is drawn up after receiving and studying a reasoned court decision. This will allow you to understand the logic of the court when making a decision, evaluate its arguments and criticize the circumstances established by the court. Without a reasoned decision, the appeal will be superficial and meaningless.

Sometimes, if the court delays making a reasoned decision, a short appeal is drawn up, which formally should take into account all the requirements for the appeal, but may not contain a complete substantiation of the applicant’s position. Such a complaint is drawn up in order not to miss the deadline for appeal. Then it will be possible to draw up an additional appeal, already with a full justification of the position of the applicant of the complaint.

The content of the appeal must comply with the requirements of Article 322 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.

Heading of the appeal against the court decision

The appeal must indicate the name of the court where it is filed. The name of the court for appeal is usually indicated at the end of the court decision, in the following form: “The court decision can be appealed within 1 month to ..... court.” If this name is not indicated, you can always find it yourself. Thus, decisions of district and city courts are appealed to regional, regional, and republican courts. For example, in the Moscow region, appeals are filed with the Moscow Regional Court, in the Krasnodar Territory - with the Krasnodar Regional Court, and in Tatarstan - with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan. In St. Petersburg and Moscow, appeals against decisions of district courts are filed with the St. Petersburg or Moscow City Court, respectively.

The appeal shall contain the full details of the applicant filing it. This is the last name, first name and patronymic without abbreviations, sounding as indicated in the passport. This is the address of the applicant’s place of residence or location; to this address the court will send notice of the time and place of consideration of the case in the appellate instance.

The complaint must indicate its name - Appeal against a court decision , so that the court has no reason to mistake it for another document. The court decision that is being appealed must be indicated. The name of the court decision must contain the date the decision was made, the name of the court that issued it, the details of the plaintiff and defendant, and the essence of the plaintiff’s claims. The name of the solution is usually written in the installation part of the solution before the words: “Installed”. For example, the decision of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow dated June 17, 2016 in a civil case on the claim of Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov against Petrov Petrovich for the collection of debt under a loan agreement.

Contents of the descriptive part of the appeal

In the descriptive part of the appeal, it is necessary to provide the reasons why the applicant does not agree with the court’s conclusions and considers the court’s conclusions to be incorrect.

When writing a narrative, you can simply describe why the court decision seems to the applicant to be illegal and subject to change or cancellation. But it is better to take as a basis the grounds for canceling the decision listed in Article 330 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. Having found suitable grounds for cancellation, you can fill them with content, taking into account the specific circumstances of the civil case.

There is no need to reiterate the court's decision in the appeal. It is already in the case, the judges on appeal will definitely familiarize themselves with it; citing excerpts and quotes from the decision will simply clutter the text of the complaint and make it difficult to understand. Try to make the descriptive part brief, in essence, so that it is clear what points the court of second instance should pay attention to, what exactly the applicant does not agree with. From the practice of lawyers, a good content of an appeal would be a text of no more than 3 pages of printed text.

Requirements in the appeal

After the grounds for cancellation, the text of the appeal must contain the requirements stated by the submitter of this complaint. Requirements cannot be arbitrary. they must comply with the powers of the appellate court (Article 328 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation). It is better to bring your requirements completely identical to those. which are specified in the law.

Thus, in an appeal, the following demands can be made:

• cancel the decision of the court of first instance completely and make a new decision in the case;
• cancel the decision of the court of first instance in part and make a new decision in the case;
• change the decision of the court of first instance in whole or in part and make a new decision on the case;
• cancel the decision of the court of first instance completely and terminate the proceedings;
• cancel the decision of the court of first instance in part and terminate the proceedings in part;
• cancel the decision of the court of first instance in whole or in part and leave the application without consideration in whole or in part.

When a partial cancellation or change of a court decision is required, the appeal indicates in which part the applicant requests to cancel or change the court decision.

The above requirements correspond to the powers of the court of second instance, other demands cannot be stated, this will contradict the requirements of the procedural law and they cannot be considered by the court of appeal.

The requirements in the appeal are indicated after the words: “I ask.” It is better if several requirements are numbered and divided among themselves. If a new decision is required in the case, then the applicant must indicate in the requirements how it should sound. For example: “Make a new decision on the case, in which the plaintiff’s claims are completely rejected.”

What is the procedure for filing an appeal in civil cases?

To file an appeal, the applicant should know some legal details of the process and the requirements imposed by the court, namely:

• Despite the fact that the law does not limit the volume of the document, it is necessary to express your thoughts in the most concise and dry language without unnecessary introductory phrases and descriptions.
• Due to the fact that the citizen applies for a fair decision to the court of appeal, which he writes about at the top of the paper, the filing of the document itself goes only through the court of first instance, which rendered a verdict in the case.
• The document can be submitted in person, or by registered mail, or online, on the websites of judicial authorities, as well as through service portals of various government services.
• For the court of second instance, there is no need to attach all the accompanying documentation describing the circumstances of the process; only the points with which the applicant does not agree need to be stated. The overall scope of the case will be transferred to the appellate department automatically.
• Administrative and arbitration cases differ in the format of the appeal, and to compile them it is necessary to use samples of appeals already submitted previously by other citizens, which can be downloaded in a large assortment from the link.

• If the text of the complaint is drawn up in accordance with the law and really highlights the shortcomings of the court decision, the court does not have the right to refuse the submitted document.
• The applicant must be prepared that he may receive a protest motion, initiating the dismissal of the appeal and insisting on the current court decision.
• After the appeal has not been satisfied and the court’s resolution remains unchanged, a citizen always has the right to formalize and file a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court. As a rule, all cassation complaints are considered extreme measures in social science in order to prove one’s own case.
• The text should not indicate dissatisfaction with the court’s decision if it is not justified, since the authority will simply reject the citizen’s complaint, and the decision will enter into legal force.

This is important to know: Deadline for filing a supervisory complaint in a criminal case

Attention! After filing a complaint, the applicant will have to wait some time, from 15 to 60 days, until the higher court gets acquainted with the case materials and makes a final decision, issuing it to all participants in the process.

Documents attached to the appeal under the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation

After the demands of the complainant, it is necessary to list all the documents attached to the appeal, and copies of the complaint must be attached. Copies are attached according to the number of persons participating in the case.

Also attached to the appeal is a receipt for payment of the state fee. unless the applicant is exempt from payment.

Other documents, as a rule, are not attached to the appeal, since they are already in the materials of the civil case. If there is a need to attach additional evidence that was not presented in the case or was presented but rejected by the court of first instance, a petition for additional evidence must be drawn up. Such a petition can be cited in the text of the complaint or issued as a separate document (then indicate this petition as an appendix to the complaint).

At the end of the appeal, the applicant must put his signature and the date of the appeal. The date of compilation does not have to coincide with the date of filing.

Filing an appeal against a court decision in a civil case

An appeal against a court decision is filed through the same court that heard the civil case. It is the judge of this court who decides on the possibility of accepting the complaint, performs the actions provided for in Article 325 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, and then sends the complaint along with the civil case to the appellate court. If the complaint was sent to the court of appeal, it will still be returned to the court that heard the civil case to decide whether to accept it.

The deadline for filing an appeal, as already noted, is 1 month from the date of issuing a reasoned court decision. The missed deadline for appeal can be restored at the request of the applicant, which is submitted simultaneously with the complaint.

After filing an appeal, you must wait until it is accepted. If the appeal is accepted, the complainant will receive notice of the appointment of the case to the appellate authority. If a complaint is left without action, its shortcomings must be corrected. And if the complaint is returned, you need to look at the reasons for the return and either restore the deadline or submit it to another authority. it is possible to appeal the court's ruling to return the complaint.

Deadline for filing an appeal in a civil case

The issuance of a court decision does not mean the end of the struggle of the losing side, especially if it does not agree with the resolution. On the contrary, in Russia, as in any democratic state, any court decision can be appealed. This does not mean that the judge’s opinion, obtained on the basis of the current law, can be criticized in any way - in the practice of conducting civil cases, there are regulations that allow you to draw up a protest complaint in such a way that it is accepted for consideration and, based on its consideration, an objective decision is made to review the resolution of the trial court.

This is important to know: The deadline for appealing a court decision in a criminal case

Complaint to the Court of Appeal - additional materials

In addition to the complaint itself and knowledge of its preparation and submission, the applicant will need additional information on the consideration of the complaint in the court of appeal, the procedure for appealing the actions of the court related to the acceptance and consideration of an appeal against a court decision in a civil case.
Attention should be paid to the specifics of filing an appeal with justices of the peace. For more information about the appeal: Appeal.
Consideration of appeals: Procedure for appeal.

About a sample objection to an appeal: Objections to an appeal.

Download a sample complaint against a decision of a magistrate: Appeal against a decision of a magistrate.

Theory and practice of appealing against a ruling of the first instance: Private complaint against a court ruling.

About appealing appellate rulings: Cassation appeal in a civil case.