Petition to postpone a court hearing, example, sample, + how to write

The grounds for postponing a court hearing in an arbitration court are the circumstances provided for by the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, due to which the proceedings must be suspended until they are eliminated.

In practice, adjournment of a meeting is used by the parties:

to agree and resolve the dispute independently (without court or with the assistance of court);
to gain time to resolve problems that arise during the process;
to stall for time using it as part of a business strategy.

Legal grounds for adjourning a meeting

They are provided for in Art. 158 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, and these include the following circumstances:

The participant in the process did not appear in court, and there is no evidence that he was properly notified of the place and time of the hearing.
The parties to the proceeding jointly request the postponement of the proceedings to independently resolve the dispute, including with the assistance of a court or mediator.
A party to the proceedings requests a postponement of the proceedings because she or her representative cannot appear in court for a valid reason.
A party or parties to the proceeding request an adjournment of the proceedings due to the need to present additional evidence.
The case cannot be considered due to the failure of any of its participants or other persons (witness, expert, translator, etc.) to appear in court.
Technical problems have arisen that are preventing the case from being processed.

Any of the grounds does not apply unconditionally. The final decision to postpone the proceedings rests with the court. He issues an appropriate ruling, which, among other things, indicates the period for which the proceedings are postponed. This period cannot exceed one month. If the parties request to postpone the proceedings due to the intention to independently resolve the dispute, such period cannot exceed 60 days.

Arbitration Procedural Code of the Russian Federation:

Adjournment as part of case management strategy

For certain reasons, a defendant (usually) or a plaintiff (rarely) may use the adjournment procedure as a type of litigation strategy or as part of such a strategy. In fact, this approach, of course, is an abuse of law. But if everything is done procedurally correctly and convincing arguments are presented, then formally the court will have no reason to refuse to postpone the trial. Moreover, it is possible that the court will not even suspect such goals.

Why are the parties delaying the process? The goal, of course, is always the same - to get time to solve some problems:

The parties often drag out the process in the hope of “wearing down” the other party. The litigation itself can negatively affect both the reputation of the company or individual entrepreneur and their business activities. If the trial lasts a long time, the negative consequences and the effect from them last a long time. All this can force the opponent to either agree to the demands or make an unfavorable compromise.
Defendants often use delaying the process to obtain a kind of deferment of fulfillment of obligations. Sometimes it is more profitable to drag out the litigation and not pay the bills than to quickly lose the case and be forced to withdraw money from circulation to pay off the court award.
If the defendant predicts a loss, then it is likely that he may delay the process to complete transactions and operations, transfer or withdraw assets.

The above reasons are the main ones, but far from the only ones. However, something else is important - delaying the process is a fairly popular strategy. At the same time, as a rule, postponing the process is only part of a larger game in which the whole range of ways to delay the case is used.

Bring third parties to arbitration court

A petition to involve a third party may be filed by both the plaintiff and the defendant, as well as a third party. If such a petition is denied, the ruling can be appealed separately from the judicial act.

A request to involve a third party in the arbitration process should be submitted at the beginning of the proceedings. It is necessary to justify the need to involve a third party (clause 1 of Article 51 of the APC). Consideration of the application will be refused if the applicant does not indicate the addresses of third parties and does not justify the need to involve them.

How to postpone a meeting

If the initiative comes from one of the parties, it is necessary to prepare a motion to postpone the proceedings.
The request can be made orally - it will be recorded in the minutes. But in most cases, the petition is prepared in writing - this is a universal option that is suitable for most reasons. Its advantage is that you do not have to appear in court in person. The petition is prepared in free form, but a number of rules must be followed:

The addressee of the petition is the court that is considering the case.
In the header of the petition, it is advisable to indicate the details of the participants in the process and the number of the arbitration case - as is done in all procedural documents sent to the court.
In the text of the petition, it is extremely important to convincingly state the reason for postponing the proceedings and justify it - to provide evidence of the existence of such a reason. The courts analyze this point very carefully. The reason must be valid, and together with the basis for postponing the hearing, it must look so that the court has no doubt about the need to grant the petition.
Justification for the application – annexes thereto. Without this, it is almost impossible to convince the court.

Download the petition to postpone the court hearing (sample)

The means to postpone a hearing depend on the situation and the basis that best fits the situation.

The most frequently mentioned are:

illness, business trip, participation in another court hearing, etc.;
the need to obtain and (or) present additional evidence.

The first grounds (reasons) are usually not difficult to confirm. It is enough to submit the relevant documents. The second one is more difficult. It is not enough to cite necessity. It is necessary to indicate to the court exactly what evidence is planned to be presented, what is its importance, how it will affect the process, and why it could not be presented earlier. The court will definitely analyze all this.

It is also advisable to indicate in the petition the period for which the proceedings need to be postponed, but within the limits permitted by the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. If this is not done, the court will set a period at its discretion.

Preparing a motion is an active way to obtain a stay of proceedings. Relying on the decision of the court itself is not the best option. Yes, circumstances may develop in such a way that the court will be forced to consider the issue of adjourning the hearing. Moreover, one can contribute to the creation of such circumstances. But in this case, you will have to rely on the court, and it may ignore the circumstances. For example, you may not appear at the hearing and expect that the proceedings will be postponed. But in this case, there is a high probability that the court, having established proper notice to the parties to the process, will simply continue the hearing without the plaintiff or defendant. The court has every right to do this.

Failure to appear at a court hearing in an arbitration court

The method by which the parties try to postpone the court hearing by failing to appear at the trial is not at all effective (clause 5 of Article 158 of the APC).

If the case materials contain evidence of proper notification of all persons participating in the case, the court has the right to consider the legal dispute without representatives.

The likelihood that the hearing will be postponed due to a party’s failure to appear will be higher if the party submits a reasoned request to the court in advance to postpone the consideration of the case. The petition must indicate valid reasons why the party will not appear at the court hearing.

A common reason is participation in another process. The courts view such petitions negatively because the legal entity has sufficient resources to attract several representatives for all cases.

This is especially true for government agencies.

Abuse of right

In the process of solving the problem of how to postpone a court hearing in arbitration proceedings, you must definitely think about whether the court will consider this an abuse of law.

Against the backdrop of the fact that plaintiffs and defendants often artificially delay the process, courts are increasingly and more meticulously evaluating any attempts to postpone, reschedule, or suspend the process.

What may be considered an abuse of right and a fine imposed:

Repeated failure to appear in court for the same reasons or without notifying the court of the reasons.
Filing a motion to postpone the process without providing evidence of the existence of grounds.
Repeated postponement of the process under the same or similar pretexts, where a kind of system of certain actions is seen.
Taking an excessively long time to collect evidence or indicating the need to collect evidence that could well have been obtained in advance and presented during the trial.
Constant attempts to delay the process using various methods, not just postponing the meeting. For example, a party may submit a flurry of various petitions and statements - recusal of a judge, appointment of various examinations, calling witnesses, filing a counterclaim, changing requirements, requesting evidence, etc.

If a party has asked to postpone the court hearing 1-2 times and has well argued the request, then this is unlikely to be seen as an abuse of right. But if this happens regularly and the process has clearly stalled, then the court will definitely pay attention to this.

We cannot exclude the possibility that the other side of the process will begin to use countermeasures. She has the right to object to the granting of the motion to postpone the proceedings, as well as other motions and statements of the opponent. She may insist that the proceedings continue without the participation of the other party to the case or without additional evidence. You also need to be prepared for this. It is not enough to convince the court - you need to make sure that the opponent’s arguments are weaker.

Article 158 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. Adjournment of trial (latest version)

1. The arbitration court postpones the trial in cases provided for by this Code, as well as in the event of a failure to appear at the court hearing of a person participating in the case, if in relation to this person the court does not have information about notifying him of the time and place of the trial.
2. The arbitration court may postpone the trial at the request of the parties if they seek assistance from the court or a mediator, including a mediator, judicial conciliator, as well as if the parties accept the proposal of the arbitration court to use the conciliation procedure.

4. The arbitration court may postpone the trial at the request of a person participating in the case due to the failure of his representative to appear at the court hearing for a valid reason.

8. The arbitration court shall issue a ruling on the postponement of the trial.

10. The trial in a new court session is resumed from the moment from which it was postponed. Re-examination of evidence examined before the adjournment of the trial is not carried out.

Article 163 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. Break in the court session

The arbitration court, at the request of a person participating in the case or on its own initiative, may announce a break in the court hearing.
A break in the court session may be declared for a period not exceeding five days.
The break within the day of the court session and the time when the session will be continued are indicated in the minutes of the court session. On a break for a longer period, the arbitration court issues a ruling, which is entered into the minutes of the court session. The ruling shall indicate the time and place of continuation of the court hearing.
After the end of the break, the court session continues, as announced by the presiding judge at the court session. A re-examination of evidence examined before the break is not carried out, including when representatives of persons participating in the case are replaced.
Persons participating in the case and present in the courtroom before the break was announced are considered to have been duly notified of the time and place of the court session, and their failure to appear at the court session after the end of the break is not an obstacle to its continuation.