Reconciliation of parties in a criminal case
According to Article 25 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, a court, investigator or investigator, with the consent of the head of the investigative body or prosecutor, respectively, has the right to terminate a criminal case against a person accused or suspected of committing a crime. The procedure for reconciliation of the parties in a case is possible if the following conditions are met:
- the crime committed by the suspect/accused falls into the category of minor or moderate gravity;
- the crime must be committed by the person for the first time;
- the person must reconcile with the victim and fully compensate for the harm caused;
- the victim must provide a written statement of his consent to terminate the criminal case against the suspect/accused;
- The accused himself should not directly object to the termination of the criminal case.
We note right away that crimes of minor or medium gravity include crimes for which punishment is provided for by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - the term of imprisonment should not exceed 3/6 years, respectively. A crime committed for the first time implies that the suspect/accused has not been previously convicted or his criminal record at the time of the commission of this crime had already been withdrawn or expunged.
Important! The main document facilitating the implementation of the procedure for reconciliation of the parties is a statement from the victim of his consent to this procedure.
Contents of the request. Samples.
A request to terminate the case for reconciliation of the parties does not have a clear template, but it is important to draw it up as informatively as possible. So, when composing the text, it is important not to forget to indicate the following data:
- The address of the court or prosecutor's office where the document is being submitted must be indicated.
- The full name of the victim or his representative is indicated, and the latter must provide a power of attorney under which he is allowed to represent interests. If there is no power of attorney in connection with the death, then you need to provide a prosecutor’s resolution recognizing the person as a victim in connection with the death of a relative.
- It is advisable to indicate a telephone number if the petition is filed before the trial in case of possible problems.
- Briefly describes the incident that occurred. For example, if one person has lost his rights to property, as a result of which he has suffered damage, then this fact must be reflected and the amount of damage must be stated. If a citizen suffered morally, his relative died, he suffered pain, etc., then he needs to indicate how much he estimates his damages to be.
- It is indicated that the accused has paid the amount of damage, and therefore the person who suffered the deprivation no longer has any claims against him. This parameter must be reflected.
The completed statement is submitted both at the stage of investigation and at the stage of trial. The time of submission does not matter. It all depends on whether the court will take the drafted text into account and whether it will be taken into account when making a decision.
A sample application for reconciliation of the parties may be as follows.
- from the defendant:
- from the victim:
Reconciliation with the victim: how to reach a compromise
Reconciliation with the victim and making amends for the harm caused to him as a result of committing a crime for the suspect/accused means admission of guilt, complete repentance, an official apology, as well as monetary compensation for the material and moral damage caused. The main problem, as a rule, arises in the issue of establishing monetary compensation, the amount of which is established by agreement of the parties and must be extremely reasonable, justified and truly correspond to the amount of damage caused. In practice, the issue of making amends is especially acute in terms of the psychological difficulty of reaching an agreement. The victim, finding himself in a stressful situation as a result of a crime and having received serious psychological trauma, is not always ready to forgive his opponent and reach a settlement agreement. Negotiations reach a dead end due to a discrepancy between the wishes of each party regarding the amount of compensation; very often the victim demands an unreasonably inflated amount, which the suspect is simply unable to pay. To avoid such disputes, each party must provide compelling reasons for its position, and more often than not, involving a qualified mediator in the problem allows the issue to be resolved in a matter of hours.
Important! The victim’s application to terminate the criminal case in connection with the reconciliation of the parties must indicate exactly what actions aimed at reconciliation were performed by the suspect/accused.
The procedure for reconciliation of parties under the law
Reconciliation of the parties is carried out in strict sequence:
- the parties enter into a reconciliation agreement;
- the victim submits an application to the investigative authorities or the court about his consent to reconcile with the suspect/accused;
- authorities decide on the possibility of reconciliation of the parties and termination of the criminal case.
Just as in the case of reaching a compromise on issues of the amount of compensation for damage, there are enough difficulties in the issue of making a decision on reconciliation by executive authorities. The whole point is that termination of a criminal case after reconciliation of the parties, even if all the necessary conditions are present, is only a right, and not an obligation for law enforcement and judicial authorities. Thus, the inquiry officer, investigator or judge may refuse to satisfy the victim’s application if they come to the conclusion that for some objective reasons, the suspect/accused cannot be released from punishment provided for by criminal law. Also, it is worth noting that although the legislation does not directly establish a condition for the reconciliation of the parties on the full admission of guilt by the suspect/accused of committing crimes, this requirement follows automatically from the meaning of other conditions, that is, a person who has committed a crime can reconcile with the victim only upon recognition guilt and remorse for what he did.
Consequences
The grounds for termination of criminal prosecution can be rehabilitative or non-rehabilitative. Reconciliation of the parties is a non-rehabilitative basis. That is, with such a termination of the case, the suspect, by compensating for the damage caused, actually admits his guilt.
At the same time, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a person is considered innocent of committing a violation of the law if there is no court verdict against him that has entered into legal force.
If you still have questions about reconciling the parties in case of theft, ask our qualified lawyers by phone or through the form on the website.
Reconciliation of parties to a criminal case in practice
Unfortunately, in practice, a seemingly simple procedure for terminating a case through reconciliation of the parties raises many questions and difficulties. According to statistics, reconciliation of the parties at the pre-trial stage is much less common than in court, which is due to the reluctance of law enforcement agencies to carry out this procedure due to the perception of it as pressure on the victim or reluctance to close cases at the stage of completion and transfer it to court. However, you should not worry if the preliminary investigation refused to dismiss the case; in court, this can all be resolved much easier and faster. It is very important to ensure that the victim’s statement of consent to reconciliation of the parties is attached to the criminal case, then to provide for the mandatory appearance of the victim, to create for this all the conditions where he must re-attach the request for reconciliation to the case and support his position in the court hearing. If everything is done correctly, in 99% of 100% the court will decide to terminate the criminal case through reconciliation of the parties, and the accused will be released from criminal liability.
Conciliation procedure in civil proceedings
In accordance with the law, the most common form of reconciliation of parties in civil proceedings is the end of the case using a settlement agreement, as a result of a successful negotiation process (Part 1, Article 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation). The mandatory conditions for reaching a compromise are:
- the conciliation procedure is allowed in 2 instances (Article 173, Article 326.1 of the Code of Civil Procedure);
- the settlement agreement must comply with the norms of current legislation and not violate the interests of third parties (Part 2 of Article 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure);
- the agreement of the parties must be approved by a court ruling, after which the process is considered completed, and the parties lose the opportunity to go to court again on this dispute (part 2, 3 of article 173, paragraph 3 of article 220 of the Code of Civil Procedure).
Another way to reconcile the parties is the mediation procedure, when the parties resort to the help of a qualified mediator to resolve the dispute. Based on the results of the procedure, a mediation agreement is drawn up. The conditions for the mediation procedure are:
- the procedure can be carried out at the initiative of the parties or at the proposal of a judicial authority (clause 5, part 1, article 150, article 172 of the Code of Civil Procedure);
- for the period of implementation of the procedure, the consideration of the civil case is postponed (part 1 of article 169 of the Civil Procedure Code);
- the agreement can only be executed voluntarily (Part 2 of Article 12 of Federal Law No. 193-FZ);
- this agreement can be used as a settlement agreement for approval by the court (Part 3 of Article 12 of the Federal Law No. 193-FZ).
It should be noted that mediation is not very common on the territory of the Russian Federation; it is still an incomprehensible innovation, and, therefore, is practically not used by the parties in civil proceedings.
Legal characteristics
The main task of any legal penalty is to punish the guilty person for illegal actions, to limit his interests in order to prevent future offenses. For the injured party, this is a probable chance for compensation for the harm caused (moral and/or material). Therefore, when considering administrative, civil and criminal cases, the opinion of the victim, the extent of damage caused and the ability to resolve the conflict peacefully are taken into account.
Reconciliation in criminal court is a search for a compromise in which the victim puts forward a number of legal and reasonable demands, and the attacker undertakes to fulfill them to the prescribed extent. We are talking only about reducing illegal consequences.
Important! In order for criminal proceedings and the initiation of a case to be stopped, it is necessary to record such a decision in writing.
But these are not all the conditions. Detailed principles of reconciliation of participants in proceedings are outlined in the articles of the Criminal Code, the Code of Criminal Procedure and in examples of judicial practice.
As for the legal consequences of the settlement agreement for the attacker, it all depends on the stage of the investigation at which the document was signed. If the peace agreement is drawn up before familiarization with the charges, then information about the citizen will not be entered into the unified database of pre-trial investigations. After the accusation, the person becomes involved in the crime, and a record of this is stored in the all-Russian database forever.
At the same time, in accordance with Article 86 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a person will be considered not convicted, due to exemption from punishment on the basis of an agreement.
Attention! In cases where there is complicity, that is, several persons simultaneously participated in the crime, each of them must reconcile with the victim separately. And, conversely, if there are several victims, then in the absence of a settlement agreement with at least one of them, release from liability is impossible.
