Tips for writing a collective appeal to the prosecutor's office with samples

Absolutely every citizen can face a violation of their rights. This can be either a minor offense or a very serious crime. There are many services in Russia designed to protect the interests of citizens. Thus, to work with dissatisfied customers of stores, there is Rospotrebnadzor, and for those using banking services, there is the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. However, the most effective service was and remains the prosecutor's office. She considers absolutely any complaints and suppresses any offenses.

Typically, an application to the prosecutor's office looks like a complaint from one specific citizen about one or more actions that violated his rights. However, what if you are not the only victim of a crime? In this article we will tell you how to properly unite other victims, write a collective complaint and, with its help, achieve justice.

Reasons for contacting the prosecutor

Prosecutor's office employees are part of the law enforcement system, designed to protect the interests of citizens and monitor the activities of both legal entities and individuals. You can turn to the prosecutor's office for protection if your rights are violated by neighbors, employers and other entities.

There are many reasons for filing a letter to the prosecutor's office. Practice shows that most often a group of people is sent to the prosecutor’s office for the following reasons:

If the employer does not comply with the terms of the employment contract in relation to hired personnel (violation of the terms of payment of wages, abuse of authority by management, other cases of non-compliance with the terms of the employment agreement). To eliminate the offense and hold the employer accountable, citizens can file a collective complaint.
If the police left the complaint against neighbors without consideration, then you can send a complaint to the prosecutor's office.
If civil servants exceed their powers or fail to perform official duties.
In case of violation of contractual obligations by one of the parties. For example, you can send a complaint about the inaction of the Management Company for the absence or improper execution of repair work, etc.

What is a collective statement

A collective complaint to the prosecutor's office is filed if the same type of offense has been committed against several citizens.

The appeal is signed by each victim. The number of applicants is not limited at the legislative level. If an offender, represented by an individual or an organization, commits an offense against several citizens, then they can unite in a group to contact the prosecutor’s office. The magnitude and nature of the harm caused may differ for each victim.

Submit an anonymous application

The main requirement for how to correctly write an application to the prosecutor’s office is to indicate the name and address of the applicant, so it will not be possible to submit a document anonymously if you want to receive a response from government agencies. If you try to send even a truthful and correctly completed complaint, but without the applicant’s full name and address, the prosecutor’s office will consider the document, but there will be no response.

Thus, although the law does not prohibit sending anonymous complaint samples, and they may serve as the basis for an extraordinary inspection, the prosecutor’s office will not respond to the document. So the applicant will not know whether measures were taken or whether the authorities were inactive. This is logical, because if the complaint is anonymous, it is not known where to send the response.

Legislative regulation

The main legislative acts establishing the procedure for citizens to contact the prosecutor's office are the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Criminal Procedure Code, namely:

Articles 125 and 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation;
Article 33 of the Constitution, which establishes the right of citizens to protect their interests.

Before writing an appeal, you need to thoroughly study these standards in order to avoid mistakes.

The rules for contacting the prosecutor's office are described in the video:

Functions of the government agency

The main function of the Prosecutor's Office is to supervise compliance with the norms of the current legislation of the Russian Federation.

The Prosecutor's Office carries out supervision in the following areas:

supervision of compliance with the norms of current legislation by state legislative and executive authorities at various levels, municipal authorities, their officials, as well as ensuring that the regulations issued by them do not conflict with the current legislation of the Russian Federation;
supervision of compliance by state legislative and executive authorities at various levels, municipal authorities and their officials, as well as enterprises and organizations of various forms of ownership and their officials of the rights and freedoms that, in accordance with the current legislation of the Russian Federation, are guaranteed to its citizens;
supervision over compliance with the norms of the current legislation of the Russian Federation by state bodies engaged in operational investigative activities, inquiries, as well as preliminary investigations;
supervision of compliance with the norms of the current legislation of the Russian Federation by bodies and institutions executing sentences imposed by courts, as well as applying other coercive measures prescribed as a result of court proceedings. This includes supervision of the actions of the administration and employees of prisons, correctional labor and educational colonies, medical correctional institutions and other institutions of similar purpose;
supervision of compliance with the norms of the current legislation of the Russian Federation by employees of the Federal Bailiff Service.

In addition to the above supervisory functions, the Prosecutor's Office carries out:

criminal prosecution and supervision over compliance with the norms of the current legislation of the Russian Federation by bodies carrying out inquiry and preliminary investigation, over the compliance of their actions with the powers granted to these bodies by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation;
participation in the administration of justice. Despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office does not administer justice (this function is vested exclusively in the courts), it is the prosecutors who act as prosecutors in trials. And it is the Prosecutor's Office that sends complaints to the higher courts about sentences, decisions and rulings passed by the courts that are too lenient, in the opinion of the Prosecutor's Office, or that contradict the current legislation;
consideration of complaints and applications received from citizens and organizations. In accordance with its powers, the Prosecutor's Office considers complaints and other requests received to it, which report a violation of the current legislation of the Russian Federation. Based on the results of their consideration, a decision is made. It is worth noting that if the decision made by the prosecutor on your complaint does not suit you, apply to the courts to protect your legal rights and interests. In this case, the decision made by the prosecutor on a complaint against a sentence, ruling or court decision must be appealed to a higher Prosecutor's Office. The procedure for considering appeals received by the Prosecutor's Office, as well as the period for their consideration, are determined by the current legislation of the Russian Federation;
coordinating the work of various law enforcement agencies aimed at combating crime. Within the framework of their powers, the Prosecutor General and subordinate prosecutors subordinate to him coordinate the activities of the Federal Security Service, Police, Federal Customs Service and other law enforcement agencies aimed at combating crime. To do this, they convene coordination meetings at various intervals and create working groups in which employees of the above-mentioned departments are involved. In their work to coordinate the activities of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors are guided by the Regulations on the coordination of the activities of law enforcement agencies to combat crime, which was approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of April 18, 1996 No. 567;
participation in law-making activities. Prosecutors have the right to submit to legislative bodies, as well as other bodies vested with the right of legislative initiative, various proposals to introduce changes, additions or complete repeal of various legal acts;
publishing activities. The General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation is engaged in the creation and publication of various publications for special purposes.

Compilation rules

At the legislative level, no single application form has been developed. It is written in free form. But before starting to draw up the document, the victims will need to come to a consensus on the requirements and the form of submission.

A written appeal is preferable, since if there is no action on the part of the prosecutor’s office, victims can send a complaint to higher authorities.

The text of the complaint can be handwritten in legible handwriting or typed on a computer and printed.

In order for the document to be accepted for work, you will need to follow some recommendations when writing it:

The header of the complaint indicates the name of the supervisory authority without abbreviations, as well as the name and position of the responsible person to whom citizens apply. Below should be information about the applicants (full name, address details of registration and residence, mobile numbers for communication). If there are many victims, for example, employees of the organization, then you should write that the appeal comes from the team. In this case, a list of employees is attached to the application.
Below, in the middle part of the sheet, the name is indicated: “Collective appeal.”
The main part of the document provides the grounds for seeking protection of violated rights. You will need to describe the reasons that prompted each of the victims to write a complaint. From the text, the circumstances of the offense and their nature (with or without aggravating circumstances) should become clear to the prosecutor. To confirm the validity of the applicants' demands, the text must contain references to legislative acts (articles of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
The following are the requirements of the applicants. With references to legislative acts, the essence of the complaint to the supervisory authority is outlined: the need to conduct a prosecutorial audit, bring to justice, and restore the rights of victims.
The document ends with the date of compilation and the signatures of all applicants with a transcript.

If additional evidence confirming the fact of an offense is attached to the appeal, then the appeal must contain a list of them.

Correct design

The complaint can be handwritten in clear and legible handwriting or typed on a computer. The application may not be considered if it is written illegibly and sloppily. As a rule, this will be notified by mail upon return. Given that this is a document, the language must be official, using special legal terms and concepts. Colloquial language, jargon, obscene language, threats and insults should be avoided.

Indicate your first name, last name and address. Anonymous requests are not automatically accepted. You must indicate the name of the government agency or indicate the name of the prosecutor himself. They can return it within seven days if it lacks any information or facts, so it is better to express your thoughts clearly and to the point; there is a possibility that they will call you for clarification and clarification of any points.

You should not overwhelm the prosecutor’s office with stacks of letters; there is a possibility that the complaint will not be considered. It is better to make sure that the document is formatted correctly and send it once.

From whom to write

The written appeal sets out the general demand put forward by a group of affected citizens. However, the principles of their combination may be different. The applicants may be:

persons living in an apartment building;
employees of one company;
military personnel of the unit;
citizens who signed a share participation agreement, etc.

The law does not prohibit sending petitions to the prosecutor's office anonymously. But authorized employees do not respond to such complaints, and the applicant will have to wait for a response.

Therefore, if a violation of rights against a team is revealed, a written appeal should be filed.

Through the Internet

For those who do not have the opportunity to send by mail, you can do this via the Internet. This can be done on the official website of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.

To do this you need the following:

fill in the required fields indicating real personal data;
prepare the text of the letter, according to the same rules as I do for a written appeal;
you can attach various audio, video, photographic materials up to 5 MB;
select a regional prosecutor's office;

This method is much more convenient and faster, however, this right should not be abused.

Sample complaint

The collective appeal is drawn up by the organizer according to one of the samples below.

The following form can be used as a universal form:

If the rights of citizens are violated by the Management Company, then you can use the following form to draw up an appeal:

If the rights of workers are violated by the employer, victims can use the following example:

If rights are violated by neighbors in an apartment or house, then victims can also use the document to contact supervisory authorities.

Submission methods

You can send a complaint to the prosecutor's office in one of the most convenient ways:

Personally bring 2 copies of the document to the supervisory authority. One of them will be returned to the applicant with an acceptance mark. Another copy will remain in the prosecutor's office. Next, you need to make copies of the form for each participant in the appeal. The complaint can be submitted through an official representative. He must have with him a civil passport and a power of attorney certified by a notary.
The appeal can be sent to the prosecutor's office by registered mail with acknowledgment of delivery. The shipment must contain a list of enclosed documentation.
Through the official website of the prosecutor's office. Victims can file a complaint online at the Internet reception desk of the supervisory authority.

Review period

If there is a need to conduct several prosecutorial checks, then the period for consideration of a collective appeal can reach 30 days. The period is counted from the moment the application is received.

If the fact of the offense does not require inspections, then applicants must receive a response within 14 days from the date of filing.

If there are compelling reasons, the complaint is considered by the prosecutor immediately upon receipt. If inaccuracies are found in the document, it is returned to the applicant within 7 days from the date of acceptance by the supervisory authority.

Actions and inactions of the investigator

If the investigator abuses his official position or clearly violates the law, the applicant can also defend himself. The main thing is to correctly state the essence of the matter, attach documents documenting the violation, and links to the relevant laws. It is necessary to avoid information that is not related to the case, only factual information.

Prepare and thoroughly study the criminal and civil codes or allow a lawyer to do this for the applicant. A properly drafted complaint will help you subsequently defend your rights in court. The addressee's data must indicate the leadership of the investigative body. A sample complaint can be found at the prosecutor's office. If the complaint is accepted, it will be considered and resolved, and the complainant will be notified.

Benefits of collective complaints

Compared to a single complaint, a collective appeal has some advantages:

The thoroughness of studying the facts of the offense. If, as a result of the actions of the violator, the interests of several citizens were damaged, then the prosecutor’s office checks for the presence of illegal actions in relation to each signatory of the document. Next, an inspection is carried out to identify the fact of the same type of violation in relation to a group of citizens. That is, the collective complaint is considered in more detail.
It is difficult for an offender to object to multiple applicants. One person’s complaint may be returned due to a lack of evidence or facts confirming the offense. A collectively drawn up appeal is accepted for work quickly, the possibility of its return is small.
The presence in the document of an extensive evidence base presented by a group of citizens contributes to a better and more effective consideration of the complaint.

How does it differ from a regular application, advantages

The main difference is that the paper is signed by several applicants, each of whom has suffered some kind of damage, and the amount of such losses may not be the same.

The effectiveness of this statement is higher than an individual appeal. The benefits include:

The document will be processed much faster, because several people were affected at once.
Sometimes individually filed applications are ignored by unscrupulous employees of the prosecutor's office; in the case of a collective complaint, this will not be possible.
Group applications will not be delayed or returned to applicants.

Features of filing various complaints

The grounds that gave rise to citizens’ appeal to the supervisory authority are unique. Each situation has a number of features:

If the reason for the appeal is a delay in wages, and the employer refuses to negotiate with the employees, then they can send an appeal to the prosecutor. It will need to be accompanied by a collective agreement, which specifies the terms for payment of wages and statements from the financial organization confirming the absence of money in the staff accounts.
If the rights of apartment owners in an apartment building are violated by the Management Company, then they have the right to demand protection of their interests from the prosecutor’s office. Citizens who are tenants of residential premises cannot act as applicants.
If the owners of the apartments have accused the management company of misappropriating money coming to the personal account of the house as payment, then the complaint is supported by evidence confirming this fact. These may include documentation on the costs incurred by the management company during the implementation of work, or on their absence.

If the prosecutor's office does not want to accept the application

Citizens can appeal the refusal to accept a collective appeal by the prosecutor in one of the following ways:

The complaint can be sent to a higher prosecutor's office. This is the fastest and easiest way to appeal. Its disadvantage is that the appeal will be forwarded for consideration to the prosecutor to whom the application was originally sent. But if the petition to higher authorities is supported by facts confirming inaction, then the reaction of the lower prosecutor’s office will follow.
To appeal the refusal or inaction of the prosecutor, you can send a request for access to the case materials to a higher supervisory authority (in accordance with clause 4 of article 5 of the Federal Law of the Russian Federation “On the Prosecutor’s Office”). In this case, the prosecutor will need to conduct a check and provide the applicant with the requested data or formulate a reasoned refusal.

If the interests of several citizens have suffered, then you should not remain silent or seek help alone. To increase the chances of eliminating the offense, you should unite and form a common complaint. But before this, more evidence needs to be collected to confirm the fact of a homogeneous offense against the group.

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Additional questions

How to write an anonymous letter to the prosecutor's office

Sometimes there is a desire to make an anonymous complaint: against neighbors, against a boss, against a local police officer, or in other cases.

Although anonymous complaints are not usually considered by the prosecutor's office, there is one exception: reporting a crime in progress.

There is usually no way to be completely anonymous, but there are workarounds:

You can contact through another person. He will know the complainant and will take responsibility for the complaint if there is one. This method may be used if the complainant is afraid of being fired for complaining.
You can send a letter disclosing your details, but ask that personal data not be disclosed during the review.

What are the dangers of contacting the prosecutor's office?

It should be remembered that any false appeal is a punishable offense.
For false denunciation, the Criminal Code provides for liability under Article 306. However, in practice, this type of liability more often arises during the initiation of criminal cases or refusals to initiate them. This topic is not the subject of this article, since the form of appeal to the prosecutor’s office considered here is aimed at resolving issues largely outside the scope of criminal procedural relations. However, I note that you can contact the prosecutor's office with a request to initiate a criminal case, but this procedure requires drawing up a protocol, personal presence and identification of the applicant. If, during the process of filing an application to initiate a criminal case, you provide an employee with knowingly false information and all four elements of a crime are discovered, including false information about a specific person and a specific crime, then in this case you may actually be held accountable under Article 306 of the Criminal Code .

Also for reasons of severe liability for such crimes, you should never distort facts, invent or embellish events. The statement must describe the problematic situation in line with the events that actually occurred. It is advisable to support your position with copies of documents, photographs or video materials.

How not to get unsubscribed

I do not exclude the possibility that your first letters to the prosecutor will end in receiving a formal response. This occurs due to a lack of understanding of the jurisdiction in considering those issues that are sent to this structure. Over time, you will become clearer in which cases a direct appeal to the prosecutor is more effective, and in which cases preliminary correspondence with third-party organizations is required. That is why here I have tried to outline in detail how to correctly file an appeal to the prosecutor’s office, a sample of which is given above.

What actions are taken next in response to a complaint received?

After receiving an application, prosecutors are required to check the submitted materials and study the circumstances of the case. If certain facts are revealed that confirm fraudulent actions on the part of another person, all materials are transferred to law enforcement agencies to resolve the issue of initiating a criminal case.