Consumers law and financial institutions

In the first Quarter Practise Review, issued by the Russian Supreme Court in the mid-February, one can find several decisions on consumer's relationship with banks or other financial institutions. I have already written a post on one of them, namely on a 'hardship' clause and modification of a loan contract, made in foreign currency. Here are the outlines of two others and some general conclusions...

On-line court proceedings coming soon...

A week ago Russian Parliament voted for pushing the Internet further in the litigation to make it more transparent. A draft to let all types of proceedings, including even criminal one, to be transmitted on the web site on-line, passed the lower Chamber of the Parliament. According to the draft, some general requirements should be fulfilled for the filming namely keeping order in the courtroom and prohibiting interfering the procedure. The main restriction would apparently be the necessity to get the court permission for shooting, the latter being reluctant for being filmed. 

A further step to electronic litigation

Due to some amendments and new acts as well as some improvements in the court system Internet site it is now possible to bring an action on-line not only in an Arbitrage court (which is mainly for business claims) but in General Jurisdictions courts also (which is for non-business disputes). An electronic action should be signed be an electronic signature, which can be made within 2 days for about 2000 rubles (something like $40), so it undoubtfully simplifies getting court protection for a broken right for anyone suing more than once. Although there are some weird soft bugs (for instance, nowadays the system accepts only PDF documents which have been previously printed and then scanned), they tend to be solved and anyway it solves a lot of time for lawyers and businesses.

The privacy and the law of proof

An audio of a conversation between parties to a contract can undoubtedly be a proof in a litigation amid them but does it matter whether both parties knew it was recorded? 

Mandatory complaints

From the 1^st of July 2016 the amended Arbitrage Code has mandatorily prescribed to send a complaint to a counterpart prior to sue, in order to diminish the sheer number of cases that have to be ruled by court.