Consideration of family cases by the court according to the rules of simplified litigation: a review of judicial practice and trends of change

Abstract

The article is devoted to the peculiarities of the implementation of the right to apply to the court for the protection of family rights and interests of each participant in family relations.
National procedural legislation determines that the right to judicial protection of family rights is realized by applying to court and administering justice according to the rules of civil procedure in legal proceedings (general or simplified legal proceedings), in injunctive and separate proceedings. At the same time, the authors draw attention to the legislative possibility to resolve identical family disputes both in the order of legal proceedings and injunctive proceedings. Legislators of EU member states regulate the issue of consideration of family disputes in civil proceedings in various ways: with the possibility of applying a simplified procedure; creation of specialized courts that consider family disputes; consideration of family disputes only according to the ordinary procedure.
In particular, the legislator’s classification of cases concerning the collection of alimony, its increase, the payment of additional expenses for the child, the collection of a penalty (penalty) for late payment of alimony, the indexation of alimony, the change in the method of its collection, if such requirements are not related to establishing or disputing paternity, is ambiguous. (maternity) to the category of insignificant. After all, such disputes are of great importance both for the parties (who are trying to protect personal rights related to paternity/maternity) and the court (for which each case is unique and requires careful research). It is the court that is entrusted with the duty of determining the procedure for consideration of family disputes, which actively applies discretionary powers within the framework of simplified legal proceedings, despite the requests of the parties and their desire to use as many means of protection as possible.
Quick resolution of family disputes by the court is often necessary to effectively ensure the rights and freedoms of the participants in family relations. However, it is necessary to guarantee the real observance of the basic principles of the judiciary for the resolution of relevant disputes and to minimize the presence of evaluation categories in the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding the consideration of family cases