Of course, ideally, you need to be present at the court hearing in person so that you have the opportunity, if necessary, to protect your own interests. In addition, citizens who personally participate in the trial are provided with papers (documents) regarding the results of the meeting.
If you did not have the opportunity to personally attend the trial, or if you have nothing to do with the case, then you can find out about the decision using some other methods. Nowadays, you can also find out about a court decision online. Each authority provides this kind of information on its official pages on the Internet.
When a meeting can take place without your presence
The modern legal system has provided for the option of a trial when one of the parties to the case may not be present . This was done for the purpose of preventing anyone from avoiding punishment by hiding from court. The maximum period for consideration of a court case today is exactly two months. However, even here there are exceptions, when this period can be extended for another thirty days. Often, a court hearing is postponed precisely because one of the parties did not appear at the trial. If, after appropriate notification, the party does not appear, then the court issues a verdict in absentia, because the process cannot be postponed indefinitely.
Is it possible to somehow find out information regarding the default judgment? In most cases, citizens who take part in divorce proceedings try to hide from the court. A lawsuit can be fully satisfied even if there is only one party. It also happened that the court made a decision in the absence of not one, but two parties at once.
A court hearing is postponed only in situations where the process is not urgent and has not already been postponed. If it becomes clear to the court that one of the parties is deliberately hiding from the hearing, then in order to make a decision on the case, the presence of even one party will be sufficient.
Composition of the descriptive and motivational part of the guilty verdict
The descriptive and motivational part of the guilty verdict consists of establishing, evidentiary, motivational parts, as well as the motivation for the unproven part of the accusation.
The establishing part of the guilty verdict may contain:
- a brief introductory statement of the signs of crimes for which the defendant is found guilty by the court, for example, consisting in the fact that the court “established: K. committed extortion, that is, a demand for the transfer of someone else’s property, by prior conspiracy by a group of persons, with the use of violence, in for the purpose of obtaining property on a large scale”;
- description of a criminal act recognized by the court as proven, indicating the place, time, method of its commission, form of guilt, motives, goals and consequences of the crime. At the same time, such formulations as, for example, are unacceptable: “at an unspecified time, in an unspecified place, from a source not established by the investigation, G., in prior agreement with B., illegally acquired 0.166 grams. heroin..." The motives, goals and consequences of the crime (or their absence) must be indicated, even when they are not covered by the qualifications of the crime. If the state prosecutor in the trial changed the charge in the direction of mitigation (Part 8 of Article 246 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation), then the court, regardless of what opinion it has in relation to the charge, describes the criminal act in accordance with the charge changed by the prosecutor;
- the attitude of the defendant to the charge brought against him, both in full and in the part in which the court finds him guilty, expressed in full or partial recognition or non-recognition of his guilt. In case of a partial confession, the court indicates which specific acts the defendant pleads guilty to and which he does not, and also gives the arguments that the defendant puts forward in his defense. If the defendant refused to testify against himself, then it is indicated that he refused to testify at the trial.
The evidentiary part of the conviction
The evidentiary part reveals the content of all, without exception, evidence examined by the court during the trial - both confirming the guilt of the defendant and aimed towards acquittal.
Reasoning part of the guilty verdict
In the reasoning part of the verdict, it is necessary to provide a comprehensive analysis of the evidence on which the court based its conclusions, and all evidence, both incriminating and exonerating the defendant, must be assessed. The court is obliged to explain why it accepts some of the evidence examined in the case and rejects others. In cases where there are several expert opinions in the case containing different conclusions on the same issues, the court should evaluate each of them in the verdict in conjunction with other evidence in the case and give the reasons why it agreed with one of the conclusions and rejected others.
Narrative part of the guilty verdict
The descriptive part of the verdict must also evaluate the arguments presented by the defendant in his defense. If the defendant changes the testimony given by him during the inquiry or preliminary investigation, the court is obliged to carefully check both of his testimony, find out the reasons for the change in the testimony and evaluate it in conjunction with other evidence collected in the case.
The verdict must motivate the court's conclusions regarding the classification of the crime under a particular article of the criminal law, its part or paragraph. Finding the defendant guilty of committing a crime on grounds related to assessment categories (grave or especially grave consequences, large or significant damage, significant harm, responsible official position of the defendant and others), the court should not limit itself to a reference to the relevant feature, but must provide a descriptive part of the sentence, the circumstances that served as the basis for the conclusion about the presence of the specified sign in the crime. In a case involving multiple defendants or in a case in which a defendant is accused of committing multiple crimes, the court must justify the qualifications in relation to each defendant and in relation to each crime.
In the part of the conviction where the court reasons that part of the charge is not proven, all changes in the charge in the trial are indicated and explained. If the defendant is accused of committing several crimes under various articles of the criminal law, and the charge of committing some of these crimes was not confirmed, the court in the descriptive part of the verdict gives the reasons for finding the defendant guilty of some crimes and acquitting him of other crimes, and in the operative part The sentence formulates the corresponding decision to find the defendant guilty under some articles and acquittal under other articles.
In cases where the defendant is charged with committing a crime consisting of several episodes and falling under one article of the criminal law (for example, several thefts or several episodes of continuing criminal activity), and the charge of committing some of them was not confirmed, then, if this does not entail changing the classification of the offense, it is enough for the court to formulate a conclusion in the descriptive part of the sentence, with appropriate reasons, that the charges in this part are recognized as unfounded.
If the defendant has committed one crime that is erroneously classified by several articles of the criminal law, the court in the descriptive part of the sentence must indicate the exclusion of the article of the criminal law erroneously imputed to the defendant, giving the appropriate reasons.
When the defendant is charged under several articles of the criminal law and the court during the trial comes to the conclusion that it is necessary for some of them to terminate the case on grounds established by law (Article 254 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation), a reasoned decision on this is set out not in the verdict, but in the ruling (decision) of the court, issued simultaneously with the sentence. In this case, in the descriptive part of the sentence it is necessary to indicate that the case accusing the defendant of committing other crimes was terminated by a separate determination (resolution).
Any change of charge in court must be justified in the narrative part of the verdict. The court has the right to change the charge and qualify the defendant’s action under another article of the criminal law, as well as qualify individual episodes of a crime under an article of law under which the defendant was not charged, only if the actions of the defendant, classified under the new article of the law, were imputed to him and were not excluded by the judge from the indictment (act) when scheduling a court hearing, do not contain signs of a more serious crime and do not differ significantly in factual circumstances from the charge for which the case was accepted for trial, and the change in charge does not worsen the situation of the defendant and does not violate his rights to protection.
Having come to the conclusion that it is necessary to change the charges previously brought against the defendant to articles of the criminal law providing for liability for crimes for which cases are initiated only at the request of the victim (Article 115, Article 116, Part 1 of Article 129, Article 130, Part 1 Article 131, Part 1 Article 136, Part 1 Article 137, Part 1 Article 138, Part 1 Article 139, 145, Part 1 Article 146 and Part 1 Article 147 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the court if there is a statement in the case by the victim at the court hearing about the desire to bring the defendant to criminal responsibility, as well as when the case was initiated by the investigator or inquiry officer on the grounds provided for in Part 4 of Art. 20 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, qualifies the actions of the defendant under the above articles of the criminal law.
It should be borne in mind that Art. 61 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not limit the list of circumstances mitigating punishment. Therefore, when assigning a punishment, other circumstances not provided for in this article may be taken into account as mitigating factors. The recognition of such a circumstance as a mitigating punishment must be motivated in the sentence. When deciding whether there was such a mitigating circumstance provided for in paragraph “i” of Part 1 of Art. 61 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, as a confession, the courts need to check whether the statement submitted to the investigative bodies, or the message (in any form) about the crime made to an official of the investigative body, was voluntary and whether this is due to the fact that the person was detained as a suspect and confirmed his participation in the crime.
If in a case initiated on the basis of a crime committed, the person who committed it has not been identified, a voluntary statement or report of a person about what he has done should be considered as a confession. The statement of a person brought to criminal liability about other crimes he has committed that are unknown to the investigative authorities should also be considered as a confession.
In the case of a totality of crimes committed, surrender, as a circumstance mitigating punishment, must be taken into account when assigning punishment for the crime in connection with which it was committed.
If a person’s report about a crime committed with his participation, together with other evidence, is used by the court as the basis for a conviction, then this report can be considered as a confession even in the case where the person changed his testimony during the preliminary investigation or at the court hearing.
Within the meaning of the law, the rules set out in Art. 62 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, can be applied by the courts if there is at least one of those listed in clauses “i” and “k” of Art. 61 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation of mitigating circumstances, if there are no aggravating circumstances.
Applying the provisions of Art. 62 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it should be borne in mind that when establishing mitigating circumstances provided for in paragraphs “i” and “k” of Part 1 of Art. 61 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the court has the right, taking into account the specific circumstances of the case and information about the identity of the perpetrator, to impose a more lenient punishment than provided for a specific crime, if there are grounds specified in Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Courts must keep in mind that contained in Art. 63 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the list of aggravating circumstances is exhaustive and the court does not have the right, when motivating the punishment, to refer to circumstances that are not specified in the law.
In cases where one or another circumstance provided for by law as an aggravating liability (for example, the crime causing grave consequences) is indicated in the disposition of an article of the criminal law as one of the signs of a crime (in particular, the death of the victim when the defendant is accused of murder) , it should not be additionally taken into account as an aggravating factor when motivating the sentencing for this crime.
The commission of a crime by a person in a state of intoxication caused by the use of alcohol, narcotic drugs, psychotropic or other intoxicating substances is not classified by law as aggravating circumstances. By virtue of Part 3 of Art. 60 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, this information, if there are grounds for it, may be taken into account when assessing data characterizing a person.
Courts are obliged to comply with the requirements of Part 4 of Art. 307 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation on the need to motivate conclusions in the verdict on issues related to the assignment of the type and amount of punishment to the defendant. Thus, the descriptive part of the sentence must indicate the reasons why the court came to the conclusion of imposing a sentence of imprisonment, if the sanction of the criminal law provides for other penalties not related to imprisonment; about the possibility of conditional sentencing of the defendant; on imposing a punishment below the lowest limit provided for by criminal law for a given crime, or switching to another, more lenient punishment; on the non-application of additional punishment; about deprivation of a military or special rank; on the purpose of the type of correctional institution and its regime, etc.
By virtue of Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the imposition of a punishment below the lower limit provided for by the corresponding article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is possible in the presence of circumstances that significantly reduce the degree of public danger of the crime committed by a person, or with his active assistance in solving a group crime. At the same time, according to the law, it is necessary to take into account not only the goals and motives that guided the person when committing a crime, but also his role among accomplices, behavior during or after the commission of the crime.
Bearing in mind that the law does not contain a list of exceptional circumstances that significantly reduce the degree of public danger of a crime, the court has the right to recognize as such both individual mitigating circumstances and their totality, indicating in the verdict the grounds for the decision.
Taking into account the rules contained in Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, any milder type of basic punishment may be imposed, not specified in the sanction of the corresponding article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, including a fine, deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities, correctional labor, in compliance with the provisions of Art. 44 and parts 1, 2 art. 45 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation not lower than the amounts or terms specified in the relevant articles of the General Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to each type of punishment.
Within the meaning of Part 1 of Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the imposition of a punishment below the lower limit specified in the sanction of an article of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is not prevented by the presence in the sanction of the same article of alternative, milder types of punishment (for example, Part 2 of Article 158, Part 2 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) .
If the law under which the crime committed is classified provides for the mandatory imposition of an additional punishment, then the non-application of this additional punishment can only occur if the conditions provided for in Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and must be motivated in the verdict with reference to this article.
If the court, during the trial, comes to the conclusion that it is necessary to release the defendant from punishment or exemption from serving it as provided for in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Art. 24 and paragraph 3, part 1, art. 27 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation on grounds (due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for bringing to criminal responsibility or as a result of an amnesty act), the court, when pronouncing a guilty verdict against the defendant, must motivate the decision in its descriptive part.
The court is obliged to provide in the verdict the reasons justifying the full or partial satisfaction of the civil claim or the refusal of it, indicate, with appropriate calculations, the extent to which the plaintiff’s claims are satisfied, and the law on the basis of which the civil claim is resolved.
In all cases, the sentence must indicate the punishment in such a way that during its execution there is no doubt as to the type and amount of the punishment imposed by the court. In this regard, it is necessary to keep in mind that the operative part of the conviction must indicate: the type and amount of not only the main, but also the additional punishment imposed on the convicted person for each crime recognized as proven; the main and additional penalties to be served by a convicted person for a combination of crimes and, in appropriate cases, sentences.
Finding the defendant guilty of committing several crimes, it is necessary in accordance with Art. 69 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and clause 4, part 1, art. 308 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation indicate in the operative part of the sentence the type and amount of the assigned primary and additional punishment separately for each crime and the final punishment for the totality of crimes. Additional punishment cannot be determined for a set of crimes if it is not assigned for any of the crimes included in the set.
The procedure for serving a sentence of imprisonment for a set of crimes or sentences is indicated only after the final punishment has been assigned.
When assigning a more lenient punishment than provided for a given crime, the operative part of the sentence must indicate that this punishment is determined according to the relevant article (part, paragraph of the article) using Art. 64 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Conditional sentencing is possible only in relation to persons who have been assigned one or more types of punishments listed in Part 1 of Art. 73 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The assignment of a suspended sentence must meet the goals of correcting the conditionally convicted person. Therefore, the court, in necessary cases, may, taking into account specific circumstances, the identity of the perpetrator, his behavior in the family, etc., impose on him the performance of duties not listed in Part 5 of Art. 73 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
If the court comes to the conclusion of a conditional sentence for a person who has committed two or more crimes, then such a decision is made not for each crime, but when finally imposing punishment for a set of crimes.
Considering that in accordance with Part 4 of Art. 73 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in case of a suspended sentence, additional punishments may be imposed; only the main punishment may be recognized as suspended. Additional punishments are actually carried out, which should be indicated in the operative part of the sentence.
When satisfying a civil claim brought against several defendants, the verdict must indicate which specific amounts are to be recovered from them jointly and which - in shares.
An acquittal is rendered if one of the following grounds exists:
- the event of the crime has not been established;
- the defendant was not involved in the commission of the crime;
- there is no corpus delicti in the defendant’s act;
- the jury returned a not guilty verdict against the defendant. In other words, when the court gives a negative answer to at least one of the first four questions of Part 2 of Art. 302 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.
Acquittal on any of the grounds means the complete rehabilitation of the defendant and confirms his non-involvement in the crime. Therefore, the law prohibits the inclusion in the content of an acquittal of language that calls into question the innocence of the defendant (Part 2 of Article 305 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation).
Acquitted by virtue of the requirements of paragraph 5 of Art. 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the court is obliged to explain in writing (in the verdict) the procedure for restoring his violated rights, including the rights to compensation for harm and compensation for moral damage caused to him as a result of illegal prosecution, which must be noted in the court record meetings.
Differences in the grounds for justification affect the resolution of the issue of a civil claim and compensation for damage (Part 2 of Article 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation), as well as the need for further proceedings in the case in order to identify the person guilty of committing this crime.
In particular, in accordance with Part 2 of Art. 306 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation when rendering an acquittal, issuing a resolution or ruling to terminate a criminal case on the grounds provided for in paragraph 1 of Art. 24 and paragraph 1, part 1, art. 27 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation - the absence of a crime and the non-involvement of the suspect or accused in committing a crime - the court refuses to satisfy the civil claim. In other cases, the court leaves the claim without consideration. Leaving a civil claim without consideration by the court does not prevent its subsequent filing and consideration in civil proceedings.
The court issues an acquittal due to the fact that the event of the crime has not been established (Clause 1, Part 2, Article 302 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation), when the act imputed to the defendant did not take place at all, the events specified in the charge or their consequences did not arise or occurred regardless of anyone’s or will, for example, due to the action of the forces of nature.
The court acquits the defendant due to the fact that his participation in the commission of a crime has not been proven, if the crime itself is established, but the evidence examined by the court does not confirm or exclude its commission by the defendant (clause 2, part 2, article 302 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation). The court is guided by this basis, acquitting the defendant in cases where the available evidence is insufficient for a reliable conclusion about the guilt of the defendant and the possibility of collecting other evidence in support of the accusation in court is objectively excluded.
The court makes an acquittal due to the absence of corpus delicti in the defendant’s act (clause 3, part 2, article 302 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation), when the actions of the defendant, according to the criminal law, are not a crime, when the actions of the defendant do not contain all the necessary signs of a crime.
An acquittal for any of the grounds of justification may be based on reliably established facts confirming the absence of an event or corpus delicti. To do this, the verdict must contain all the evidence used to substantiate the accusation, and arguments must be given to refute the accusation.
All evidence of the prosecution or circumstances, the reliability of which is in doubt, the court is obliged to interpret based on the rule “all doubts are interpreted in favor of the defendant.” But at the same time, the verdict must include arguments justifying the court’s doubts.
Thus, in the acquittal verdict, not a single piece of evidence relied on by the prosecution should be left without analysis.
How to find out a court decision by last name
Today, all the necessary information, as we know, is gradually transferred to the Internet. The government even introduced a new legislative norm that concerns access to information about the work of Russian courts. It follows from this that each judicial authority of our state must necessarily provide access to information about court decisions to citizens of the Russian Federation.
find a decision on a particular case by last name . To do this, you need to go to the official website of the court where the hearing took place. For this purpose, you need to go to a special section of the site called “Judicial Proceedings” and find the necessary solution there. There will be a corresponding column in this section.
How to find a court order by number
If you do not know the name of the court, then decisions on the court hearing can be found by the number of this case and the names of the direct participants , indicating the available information in any search engine. However, this search method will give the necessary results only in a situation if the court fully fulfills its obligations regarding the publication of this data on the Internet.
There is also an official website of the “Higher Arbitration Courts”. You can try to find a solution to the investigation on the website kad.arbitr.ru.
This database of court decisions includes information received from all Russian regions. Currently, this database contains almost eight million solutions. Navigating the site is not difficult. So, searching for court decisions by last name is done like this .
- Enter the appropriate query into the search bar, which should contain some part of the document.
- Then select the Russian region.
- After this, you need to decide on the category of judicial review - appeal, first instance stage, etc.
All decisions that match the entered data will be reflected by the date they were published. In simple words, in literally thirty seconds you will have access to the most relevant court decisions that meet the specified parameters. The address of the Internet resource of general jurisdiction is actoscope.com.
FOR WHOM IS A COURT DECISION VIA THE INTERNET NOT SUITABLE?
Arbitration and general jurisdiction courts prepare the text of the court decision within 5 days, and at the court itself a shortened version of the decision is announced.
In order to find out court decisions remotely, you can use the Internet or call by phone. For the last option, you need to call the court that issued the act during business hours, give the case number and last name.
Participants in the process who are determined to challenge a court decision are recommended to do so for the following reasons:
- The full text of the act appears on the Internet with delays;
- You have a month to file an appeal, during which time you should prepare and submit your complaint. For cassation, the period for appeal is 3 months;
- There is a risk of missing the statute of limitations.
If you plan to file a complaint, then you should not delay filing an appeal or cassation. In practice, a month or three is a short period of time. The defendant or plaintiff, by postponing the appeal procedure, risks missing the limitation period. This issue falls off the agenda and is pushed aside by other problems.
Restoring a missed deadline is problematic. First, you need good reasons. And then the decision on reinstatement is left to the discretion of the judge. If they, representatives of Themis, are overloaded with tasks, then the desire to take on additional ones does not always arise. Therefore, the likelihood that the application to restore the missed deadline will be denied is very high.
Therefore, to appeal a judicial act, it is recommended to find out about the reasoned decision:
- Personally attending the meeting;
- Having received the act through the court office as soon as possible (up to 7 days);
- Upon receipt of the full decision by mail;
- Having learned the text of the act over the phone.
Undoubtedly, to prepare a complaint you need the full text. By telephone you can find out the outcome of the judicial act. But this is not enough, because the complaint is prepared in relation to the text of the decision.
If there is no question of appealing, but you need to get acquainted with some old case, find out how it ended, there is no need to go to court. You can get acquainted with judicial acts within 5-10 minutes. To do this, you need any device and an Internet connection.
Is it possible to find out that they have decided to bring you to trial?
Our country has established rules of jurisdiction . The best option is to seek the services of an experienced lawyer, because jurisdiction is often difficult to determine.
However, all cases have one main principle - the statement of claim must be filed at the place of registration (residence) of the defendant. In the event that a court case is being considered against an institution, the address will be legal.
There is a separate category of claims filed at the location (residence) of the plaintiff. Here we can conclude that verification measures should be carried out regarding both the plaintiff and the defendant.
If the case involves real estate, then such claims are sent to the court next to which this property is located.
It should be noted that you can easily find criminal cases on the Internet using the name of one of the parties. However, personal presence is the best option, since this will give you the opportunity to provide yourself with protection.
You should also know the following:
- Due to constant changes in Russian legislation, information often becomes outdated faster than it is updated on the website. Therefore, you need to find out all the necessary nuances in advance.
- Each case is individual and depends on a large number of factors.
- Knowledge and understanding of the legal framework is useful, but this is not a guarantee of solving the problem.
