Novelty 4 - Counteracting the Abuse of Procedural Rights

Co-authored by Anton Havryk

This article continues a series of publications on the most striking changes in the new version of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine for the purposes of tax litigation.

What follows is the overview of the fourth most significant (of course, in our opinion) change attributable to counteracting the abuse of procedural rights.

The overview of the other essential changes is available here: Novelty No 1, Novelty No 2, Novelty No 3.

The Bill proposes measures aimed at counteracting the abuse of procedural rights.

The abuse of procedural rights may, for example, include the following: dilatory and obstructionist tactics, filing several complaints (so-called “clones”) or artificial insertion of several claims into one compliant  for the purpose of referring the lawsuit to the “needed” judge or court.

The first and main consequence of revealing the abuse of procedural rights is the refusal to allow the relevant application or petition. Additional adverse effects may encompass the full imposition of the costs of proceedings regardless of the outcome of the case, holding attorneys-at-law (advocates) and officials of governmental agencies disciplinary liable, the application of compulsory measures, such as a fine.  

   

Moreover, the Bill envisages some preventive measures directed against the abuse of procedural rights. For example, to prevent the filing of “cloned” complaints, the Bill sets out a new requirement to the statement of a claim: the plaintiff must confirm in this document that he has not yet filed any analogous complaints with courts.

* Photo from http://abovethelaw.com

New Code of Administrative Procedure: Top 16 Novelties for Tax Litigation - NOVELTY No 1 - “E-Court”

Co-authored by  Anton Havryk

At this moment, there is a great effort directed at reforming the judicial system of Ukraine in connection with the creation of the new Supreme Court. One of the key stages of the reform is the adoption of the new versions of procedural codes (the Bill of the President of Ukraine No 6232 - http://w1.c1.rada.gov.ua/pls/zweb2/webproc4_1?pf3511=61415).

We are delighted to offer a series of publications on the brightest novelties of the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine in the context of tax litigation.

Novelty No  1 - “E-Court”

A gradual transition to the so-called "E-Court" is planned. The philosophy behind the concept the  "E-Court" includes:  

• Filing procedural documents by participants in litigation, including statements of claims, in an electronic format (signed by digital signatures);

• Serving procedural documents on participants in litigation in an electronic format;

• Transiting to the electronic format of a case file. Case files will be circulated among courts of different instances in an electronic format.

For the purposes of the introduction of "E-court", the following is provided at the first stage:  

• Attorneys-at-law (advocates), governmental entities, public and municipal utilities must register their official email addresses in the single information system of the judiciary. The registration remains voluntary for other participants in litigation. After the registration, all court documents will go to the official email addresses of participant in litigation only.  Participants in litigation may also obtain procedural documents in a hard format copy, but only subject to their special request filed with the court.

• A 20% discount will be provided for the payment of court fees accompanying the e-submission of procedural documents. In large-scale tax disputes the 20% discount can be  big enough to stimulate participants in litigation to switch to e-submissions of procedural documents.

  

* Photo from https://www.dreamstime.com