The issues of dispute resolution in Belarus in the sphere of business and in the sphere of interests of individuals are rightly of interest to representatives of the business community and private clients, as participants in disputes risk their finances and reputation. It is not always necessary to resolve disputes in the courts, in many cases there is a chance to resolve disputes without a trial: with the help of the claim procedure, mediation. 

Dispute resolution before trial in Belarus

In disputes between organizations and (or) individual entrepreneurs, before going to court, you need to make an attempt to settle the dispute yourself. To do this, there is a claim-based pre-trial procedure and mediation. Another procedure may be established, for example, by the parties to the contract, or such an order is directly provided for by Belarusian legislation. For example, in the case of a dispute between an investor and the Republic of Belarus when making investments, the dispute is resolved through negotiations before the court.

When the contract and the Belarusian legislation do not provide for a different procedure for resolving the dispute before the court, and the parties to the contract have not abandoned the claim procedure in the contract, then in case of a dispute it is necessary to send a claim to the debtor before going to court.

A claim is a letter with demands to the debtor for the elimination of violations in the performance of his obligations under the contract. The requirements for the content of the claim are established in the legislation (paragraph 2 of the appendix to the Economic Procedural Code of the Republic of Belarus). In the claim, in addition to the requirements, you can offer ways to resolve the dispute. For example, offer to pay the debt in installments, transfer the dispute to the mediator for resolution, etc. The deadline for responding to a claim is set by the legislation: the debtor has one month to respond.

The claim is sent to the location of the organization or its branch, representative office – depending on the activity of which of these structures the claim arose. When the debtor is an individual entrepreneur or an individual, the claim is sent to his place of residence or place of stay. You can send a claim to the place of work of the debtor – an individual, if he does not live at the place of residence.

In the contract, the parties may provide for sending a claim by e-mail.

When it is possible to file a claim in court after the lawsuit

A statement of claim can be filed in court when a response to a lawsuit has been received with a refusal to satisfy the requirements and when the 1-month period set for the debtor’s response to the claim has expired and no response has been received from the debtor.

In addition to the evidence of the claim against the debtor, the statement of claim must be accompanied by evidence of sending the claim to the debtor and an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs (USR) about the location of the debtor when the response to the claim has not been received.

In the court of the Republic of Belarus, disputes on which the debtor recognizes the claims, but does not fulfill and on which it does not recognize the claims, are considered in different ways. When the debtor recognizes the creditor’s claims (this is usually evident from the debtor’s response to the claim or the claim is based on documents that confirm the debt), the creditor’s claim is considered in an expedited manner, without proceedings and summoning the parties to court. This procedure is called writ production (a part of litigation in Belarus).

Writ proceedings in the Economic Court

Disputes and litigation in Belarus between organizations and individual entrepreneurs are considered in the economic court.

The term of consideration of the case in the economic court of first instance is 20 working days. The state fee that must be paid before filing an application to the court is from 2 to 7 basic units. After consideration of the case and satisfaction of the claimant’s claims, the court issues an enforcement document: a ruling on a court order. It comes into force from the moment the court makes it. It can be immediately sent for enforcement.

The list of requirements that can be considered in writ proceedings is limited (Article 220 of the CPC). A number of requirements cannot be considered in writ proceedings. In particular, these are claims for the reclamation by the owner of immovable property, for the fulfillment of obligations from the contract of assignment of the claim or transfer of debt (except in cases when the debtor has acknowledged the debt in writing).

The claim proceedings in the economic court are usually initiated by the recoverer, who is called the “plaintiff” in the claim proceedings. The debtor in the claim proceedings is called the “defendant”. The economic court considers economic disputes when the debtor does not agree and disputes the creditor’s claims.

The statement of claim must be sent to the court within the limitation period. The total limitation period is three years. Some claims have shorter or longer limitation periods. For example, according to the requirements of the contract of carriage of goods, the limitation period is one year. According to the requirements of the freight forwarding contract – 10 months.

As a general rule, the statement of claim is sent to the economic court at the location or residence of the defendant. In the Republic of Belarus, there is an economic court of the corresponding region in each region, and in Minsk there is an economic court of Minsk.

Certain requirements are set for the content of the statement of claim. The plaintiff may combine several claims in one statement of claim, if they are interconnected. When property claims are made (to recover money, property, etc.), it is necessary to calculate the price of the claim.