One of the main problems for the courts in recent years is the provision of witnesses and defendants, victims — in a word, of all participants necessary for the correct conduct of the process as part of the process. Often the procedure is delayed for a long time period precisely because of the fact that a witness does not appear in court in an administrative case, or even in a criminal one.
The trouble is universal
Just ten years ago, the mere word “court” evoked respect and fear among people. This affected the discipline of the persons involved in the process: it was extremely rare that the court did not appear as a witness, even latenesses were recorded very infrequently. But nowadays the court has lost respect, which affects the behavior of the participants. Many are late and do not appear in court, without having at least some important reasons.
What happens in practice? Often a witness is not appearing in court in a civil case, the defendants do not come to hearings, and the victims are late without any justification for an unlimited time. Even lawyers interested in the process are often late or miss meetings. More than once this was noticed both by lawyers and prosecutors. In such a situation, the judge postpones the event. Everything is not so scary if the witness didn’t appear in court in a criminal or administrative case only once, but the person does not come again and again. Because of this, the case becomes protracted, this leads to judicial red tape, and journalists attack the judge, making him a "scapegoat".
Abroad and with us
How is the judicial system in other countries? Abroad, proceed as follows: there is a state authority responsible for the subpoena. Its employees give notifications personally to the participants in the process, receiving a signature from them as confirmation of receipt of the paper. In such a situation, the consequences of a witness not appearing in court are rather unpleasant - most often large fines. Abroad, judicial systems are such that contempt of court is seen as a challenge to the country and its government.
In Russia, so far things are different. Subpoenas are sent by mail, and bailiffs are responsible for ensuring that all interested parties are present at the trial. Ideally, bailiffs should arrange for even those who try to evade attending the trial to appear in court. The reasons for the failure to appear in court of the witness, which are considered admissible, are communicated to all. Nevertheless, over and over again, meetings break down due to a lack of participants.
Addresses and Responsibilities
Very often, the following happens: bailiffs visit the address indicated as the place of residence of the person whose attendance must be ensured, but they do not find the person there. They write a report on what happened and indicate that the decision to comply does not seem realistic. However, the court is forced to solve the problem of absenteeism, postpone the hearing and delay the consideration of the case until the person appears. So the failure to appear in court of a witness in a criminal case, an administrative one, becomes a headache not so much for the victim as the person responsible for the judicial proceedings.
The charge and the victim
As a rule, the victim in the trial is "in the same boat" with the prosecutor from the state. If we are talking about private processes, then the victim independently defends his position.
In this case, the victim either comes to trial or is visited by an authorized person.If no one has appeared and the case is classified as criminal, then consideration can be organized without the injured party, unless, of course, it has been previously established that the victim should be without fail. If there are no good reasons not to come to the consideration of the criminal case of the private prosecution, the victim, who missed the hearing, will face the cessation of the proceedings. This behavior of the court is described in the fifth paragraph of the first part of Article No. 24. The situation is similar if the prosecutor refuses his position from the state.
Witness and failure to appear
A person who is involved in a case as a witness must attend the trial if called. It is also obliged to transmit exclusively truthful information. This is the legal duty of a citizen, and in addition, duty as a citizen. If a person tries to evade the transfer of information to the court or refuses to do so, if he passes false data, then he can be held criminally liable.
But what about the failure to appear in court witness? Depends on whether there were good reasons for that. If any were present, it would be necessary to prove their reality. In case of absence, you need to be prepared to drive to a meeting against your will. This allows the seventh part of article numbered 56. The court may also impose a fine for the failure to appear in court witness. At the moment, the value varies, maximum - 2,500 rubles.
Circumstances and failure to appear
What is a good reason for a witness not appearing in court? Unfortunately, the current legislation does not contain an exhaustive list of circumstances that can be assessed as respectful. This becomes an obstacle to correct paperwork. As experienced lawyers object, it is impossible to take into account all possible disrespectful, valid reasons, to document them at the state level. Others say this is not required.
The Criminal Code contains a definition of a valid reason, suggesting that any justified and not violating laws and rights, not depending on the will of the citizen and making turnout into a difficult or unrealistic process, be considered as such.
Which are there?
It is not necessary to bear the witness's responsibility for failure to appear in court if the person is sick and because of this could not come to the hearing of the case. In addition, the court forgives those who did not come due to natural disasters and transport collapses. As a good reason are:
- business trip;
- illness, death of a relative;
- lack of resources (money) for the use of transport.
The situations listed are obvious difficulties preventing a person from attending a meeting.
Information is provided in advance.
The duty of the court is to inform the person who should arrive at the meeting in advance of the place and time of the event. If the witness, the victim, if they cannot be on time, must formally send a notice to the court. Such responsible behavior will show respect for the court and high morality. Even if a witness does not appear in court, such behavior somewhat smoothes the situation than skipping without a reason and notice.
Disrespectful reasons
The witness’s failure to appear in court is regarded as disrespect for the court and can serve as a reason for a fine if the person simply did not want to attend the event or did not want to testify, due to self-interest, disrespect, distrust, unwillingness to act without profit for himself.
In some cases, the victim may refuse to attend the trial, as he fears revenge on the part of the defendant, his friends and relatives. If the court finds such a danger real, it is considered a good reason. If the judge considers the threats far-fetched and the fear unfounded, then the reason will be reclassified as disrespectful.However, if there really is a danger, measures are usually taken to protect a person who might be in danger. For example, interrogation is carried out with a limited circle of people, using a technique that does not allow visual fixation of the victim. Finally, the court session can be organized in a closed format.
Inaccurate information as an excuse not to come
Quite often, the failure to appear in court is due to the fact that the court has inaccurate, inaccurate information. For example, a conclusion, an indictment contain handwritten incorrectly, inaudible data on the place of residence of the witness.
Errors in filling out personal data are made by interrogators, investigators. Incorrect addresses, names. Persons whose presence in the process is necessary cannot be notified in time due to such technical errors, and as a result, a witness does not appear in court.
Come - not come?
The obligations of witnesses are described in the Criminal Code in article 56, namely, in the first paragraph of the sixth part and in the seventh part. From here you can find out that good reasons are those that are sufficient to justify themselves, are justified. In addition, the reason in the law is formulated as a certain condition that can explain a person’s actions. As for failure to appear, here the reason is that basis which allows inaction, that is, non-visitation.
It follows from the law that a person is simply obliged to come to court. But you can skip the meeting if the person has to look after the patient or is so sick himself that he is physically unable to be in the process. If the summons was not received or arrived at the wrong time, the witness also finds himself in a situation where he simply cannot arrive at the meeting, and the guilt is removed from him. Some other circumstances not directly spelled out in the law may serve as excuses, if they are really serious. A witness who has not come to the trial may try to explain everything formally with papers by writing an appeal in the appropriate form. And yet, if possible, you should come to the meeting, thereby fulfilling your duty as a citizen of the country.
How are they notified of the meeting?
If you suspect that you may be a witness in some case, try not to miss the process notice. Usually this is sent through the postal service. As a rule, this is a registered letter with a notification, and you will have to sign it upon receipt. The notification is sent back to the court, which allows you to document that the mail was delivered to the addressee.
By law, it is not necessary to use only paper mail. You can also use fax or send a telegram, telegram. Any delivery means of communication are considered appropriate if they allow timely notifications of witnesses and other participants about the place and time of the meeting. The most important thing is the documentary, official recording of the fact that the data was transmitted to the addressee.
Some nuances
If it is necessary to bring a child under the age of 16 to the court as a witness, then the notice is sent to the parents, since they will have to accompany the child to a law enforcement agency. If there are no parents, then it will be other representatives of the minor who have the right to do so by law.
In some cases, the court trusts one person with a subpoena so that he passes it to another. In this case, the document is given directly to the hands. Such a person will have to after some time present to the judge the root of the notice or a copy on which the addressee noted that the summons has been received. If a person refuses to accept the notice, it is considered that the data was transferred to him anyway on time.
Change of address is no reason not to participate
If a certain person who is going through the case as a witness first indicated one contact address and then changed his place of residence without notifying the court, then it is generally accepted that he is responsible for receiving mail at the previous address. In order to avoid misunderstandings, it is necessary to timely provide the court with information about the new address for sending correspondence.
The court sends the documents to the address that the person indicated as the contact last. It is believed that the document has been delivered even if the person no longer lives in this apartment. Forced person can be brought to the meeting in the event that he twice missed the event, without good reason. The person is taken to court, and sometimes to the interrogating officer, investigator.
Documents - a guarantee of wallet security
So, as indicated above, a disrespectful reason for failure to appear may serve as a reason to write a fine. Usually it varies from a thousand to two and a half, the judge chooses specific numbers based on the circumstances of the case. Such situations are frequent when grievous witnesses try to justify themselves by saying that they simply did not see the notification in the mailbox, therefore they could not get the summons in time and find out about the place and time of the meeting. For the court, such a justification does not mean anything at all, so you should not hope for leniency. The only thing that can save in such a situation is the presence of a document officially confirming that the reason for the non-appearance was reasonably respectful.
On the other hand, a judge usually writes a fine when the situation is regarded as an insult to the state and the highest court. Repeated failure to appear is almost always a good reason to impose a fine.
We transfer - we save money
Having official important reasons that do not allow you to attend the meeting, you can write a special petition in which you ask to consider the possibility of postponing the meeting to another time. The court will consider it and can satisfy, if the cause is death, illness of a relative and other reasons listed above. Information should be sent in advance.
If a person’s testimony is considered significant enough, then the meeting is postponed to another date both in case of no-show, which was announced in advance, and in actual absence. An alternative is to continue the case. The court has the right not to publicize a person’s testimony if one did not appear for consideration of the case. However, the prosecutor may insist on the classification of circumstances as extraordinary, and then asks to announce the latest information received from the absent person. How this will end will be decided by the judge.