Simplified claim proceedings: Legislative regulation of the Economic Procedure Code of Ukraine
Authors: Svitlychnyi Oleksandr , Sulim Vladyslav 
Published: August 2023

In building a legal state, one of its key criteria is the creation of an honest, transparent, and effective judiciary. The essential need for radical changes in the judicial system and the reform of its individual institutions is a requirement of time. The main purpose of the judicial and legal reform in Ukraine should be to create legislative and organizational conditions for the establishment of an independent, effective, and responsible judiciary, which will be trusted by society. During the study, the method of analysis and synthesis was used for the methodological basis, thanks to which the main types of simplified procedures, their features, and legal nature were determined. Using the historical method, the emergence and development of simplified judicial procedures was investigated. Based on the dialectical method, the terms “simplified judicial procedures”, “writ proceedings” and “simplified claim proceedings” were formulated. The formal logical method was used to identify shortcomings in the legal regulation and procedural regulation of simplified judicial procedures under the new Economic Procedural Code of Ukraine. The theoretical and predictive method was used to develop and outline the main vectors for introducing changes to the legislation of Ukraine within the framework of consideration of cases in simplified proceedings. The qualifying features of simplified judicial procedures were formulated as follows: a special procedural form, voluntary application by stakeholders, special admission criteria, a special regime for applying evidence, and a special procedure for reviewing court decisions. Considering the legal nature of simplified judicial procedures, it was justified that the latter should include only writ and simplified claim proceedings. Therewith, writ proceedings are a special form of simplified judicial procedures in the economic process, which lies in persistent protection of undisputed rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of a person, which occurs based on issuing a suitable court order. Simplified claim proceedings are a special form of simplified court procedures within the framework of economic proceedings, which lies in the rapid protection of the rights, freedoms, and legitimate interests of a person, based on the insignificance of 6 stated requirements, the availability of written documents, without holding full-fledged court sessions and with the issuance of a special court decision. It was proposed to add amendments to the corresponding economic procedural legislation of Ukraine regarding the regulation of the procedure for considering economic disputes in the simplified claim proceedings. Judicial legal reform in Ukraine is complex and involves amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, legislation on the judicial system and status of judges, reform of related institutions (prosecutor’s office, bar, law enforcement agencies), as well as improvement of procedural legislation and legislation governing the procedure for executing court decisions. The article notes that legislative changes have been introduced to the Economic Procedural Code of Ukraine, new forms of economic proceedings have been initiated, one of the forms of economic proceedings is simplified claim proceedings, which are designed to consider minor cases, cases of minor complexity, and other cases for which a quick resolution of the case is a priority. Along with the simplified procedure and procedure for considering an economic case, the introduction of such a form of judicial dispute consideration also revealed certain shortcomings in its regulation. The materials of this paper are of practical value for further research in this area, considering the ability to substantially relieve economic courts and increase the efficiency of economic proceedings, while raising the level of trust in them.