The price of a claim for minor disputes will be significantly reduced - draft law

The current amounts of the claim price (as a criterion for classifying a case as minor) are significantly higher than the subsistence minimum and minimum wage and do not correspond to the understanding of the case and the dispute in it as minor. Accordingly, they should be revised downward.

Pursuant to the relevant decision of the Constitutional Court dated 22.11.202 No. 10-r(II)/2023, a group of MPs registered in the Verkhovna Rada Draft Law No. 11026 dated 19.02.2024 «On Amendments to the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine and the Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine to Guarantee the Right to Judicial Protection in Minor Disputes».

Today, for the purposes of the Code of Civil Procedure, minor cases are considered to be:

• cases in which the amount in controversy does not exceed one hundred times the minimum subsistence level for able-bodied persons;
• cases of minor complexity recognized by the court as minor (except for cases that are subject to consideration only under the rules of general action proceedings and cases where the amount of the claim exceeds two hundred and fifty minimum subsistence levels for able-bodied persons);
• consumer protection cases where the amount in controversy does not exceed two hundred and fifty times the minimum subsistence level for able-bodied persons.

Taking into account the conclusions of the Constitutional Court, the authors of the legislative initiative propose to replace the mentioned prices of the claim in Part 6 of Article 19 of the Civil Procedure Code with fifteen (instead of one hundred) and thirty (instead of two hundred and fifty) minimums, respectively.

In addition, according to the MPs, cases arising from labor relations should not be considered in the simplified lawsuit procedure (Article 274 of the Civil Procedure Code).

Similar amendments are proposed to Article 12 of the Code of Administrative Procedure. Thus, if the law is adopted in the wording of its draft, an appeal against a decision of a public authority on the basis of which it may claim to recover funds in an amount not exceeding fifteen (currently one hundred) times the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons will be considered insignificant.

Cases involving disputes over decisions, actions and omissions of a public authority will be considered exclusively under the rules of general action proceedings, if the plaintiff also claims compensation for damage caused by such decisions, actions or omissions in an amount exceeding sixty (according to the current version of the Code of Administrative Procedure - five hundred) minimum subsistence levels for able-bodied persons.

According to the authors of the initiative, such regulations will guarantee citizens the right to judicial protection in minor disputes.

As a reminder, according to Article 131-2 of the Constitution, only lawyers can represent people in court. However, the law may provide for exceptions, including for minor disputes.