A crime may be reported or a surrender request filed through Internet

Participants of court proceedings will be able to send applications, requests, complaints through Internet in the form of electronic documents bearing digital signature. Also, they may count on the receipt of procedural documents in the electronic form. However, the Ministry of Justice, even though it prepared the respective amendments to the legislation last year, decided not to be hasty implementing the novations and to give the judges time to prepare until 2015.

The draft law “On introducing amendments to certain legal acts of the Russian Federation” stipulates amending the Penal Procedural Code, Administrative Procedural Code, Civil Procedural Code of Russia, AOCRF, the Laws “On digital signature”, “On information, information technologies and protection of information” etc. It “is aimed at fixing the legal regime of electronic documents and ensuring its legal significance to the activity of the judicial authorities, prosecutor’s offices and notarial system, including the rendering of public services in the electronic form”, say the developers. The document was developed last year, but corrected by the Ministry of Justice after being discussed with the interested institutions.

The draft law amends four Codes at once: Penal Procedural Code, Administrative Procedural Code, Civil Procedural Code of Russia, and AOCRF. According to the draft law, participants of judicial proceedings will be able to send applications, requests, complaints to investigators, prosecutors, courts in the form of electronic documents, confirming their legal significance by the reinforced qualified digital signature. Citizens will be able to file crime reports or surrender requests in such form. This may be done by filling in the special blank form on the official website of the preliminary investigation body, prosecutor’s office or court.

At the same time, investigators and judges will be able to issue procedural decisions, like resolutions and sentences, in the form of electronic documents.

If requested by the participants of the proceedings, they will be obliged to facilitate to the participants of the proceedings copies of procedural decisions and other documents done as electronic documents. The respective amendments are made to the Penal and Civil Procedural Codes of Russia.

Besides, said amendments to the Civil Procedural Code of Russia stipulate the possibility for the courts to send the writs of execution as electronic documents.

Note that the revised edition of the document does not contain the provision which obligated the court employees to indicate in the summons and other court notices, besides the name and address of the court, the time and place of the court session, also the official website, telephone number and e-mail address of the court.

The draft law also amends the rules of filing documents with the courts of arbitration. One will be able to do this in writing or by filling in a form on an official website of the court, like nowadays, or in the form of an electronic document. Requests to revoke a decision by a court of arbitration, to issue a writ of execution for enforcing a decision made by a court of arbitration, to acknowledge and execute a decision made by a foreign court and a foreign arbitration award may also be filed as electronic documents bearing a qualified electronic signature. The makers of the document have now included the provision, which permits filing requests to secure claims as electronic documents. As in criminal and civil judicial proceedings, the parties to a case in a court of arbitration may count on receiving copies of court acts in the form of electronic documents by e-mail.

However, the inter-institutionary coordinations resulted in a fundamental innovation: the postponement of said suggestions until 2015. The Ministry of Justice explains this sluggishness: “the courts will require equipping them with technical means, implementing electronic administering, ensuring protection of information, electronic provision of information, purchase of licensed software, implementation of a system of distance training, and forming of the necessary telecommunications infrastructure in order to ensure efficient interaction of all judicial system objects”. At the same time, it is suggested to finance this “modernization” of the courts by the funds granted within the framework of the federal special purpose program “Development of the judicial system of Russia”.

Alexander Petrov, Advocate at the Firm, told Pravo.Ru that it is difficult to evaluate the efficiency of the suggested measures at the current stage. He says: “However, they are undoubtedly useful, since the participants of criminal proceedings spend an unjustified amount of time on filing and receipt of the documents from the court, Investigation Committee of Russia etc.” In A.Petrov’s opinion, whether electronic documents will be accepted into court proceedings or the latter will be done “the old way”, on paper, depends on the speed of implementation and on the efficiency of the respective electronic services.

A.Petrov points out that, even though the changes to the Penal Procedural Code of Russia provide for the possibility to use electronic documents as proof, disputes will obviously arise until practice in this area is formed.

The draft text of the Federal Law “On introducing amendments to certain legal acts of the Russian Federation” (in the part of fixing the legal regime of electronic documents and of ensuring its significance to the activity of the judicial authorities, prosecutor’s offices and notarial system, including the rendering of public services in the electronic form) is available in the “Pravo.Ru” here.

Full text of the publication is available here.