Date of publication: 2 July 2025
Oleksandr Kamsha, Head of Dnipro Office, Attorney at Law, Insolvency Receiver
Source: Yurydychna Gazeta
Participants in court proceedings sometimes try to use legitimate legal instruments to prevent or complicate the consideration of a case in court, i.e., for an unlawful purpose, not to ensure certainty in relations, or not to protect rights and interests. If a person performs a certain procedural action not to protect rights, but to achieve other goals, such a person goes beyond the actual meaning of the relevant procedural law, i.e., abuses it.
Abuse of procedure consists of a violation of the conditions for the exercise of subjective civil procedural rights. The main criterion for concluding that actions constitute abuse of procedural rights is their inconsistency with the task of judicial proceedings, which is the fair, impartial, and timely resolution of disputes by the court, to effectively protect the violated, unrecognized, or disputes rights and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities, the state, and therefore such actions constitute an obstruction of justice.
The prohibition of abuse of procedural rights has been provided for in the current procedural codes of Ukraine since December 2017. This prohibition establishes that participants in court proceedings and their representatives must exercise their procedural rights in good faith; abuse of procedural rights is not permitted. Depending on the specific circumstances, the court may recognize actions that contradict the purpose of the relevant type of proceedings (civil, commercial, administrative) as an abuse of procedural rights. The decision on the presence or absence of abuse is left to the discretion of the court hearing the case, i.e., only the court can conclude that abuse has occurred. To fulfill the task of the proceedings, the party to the case must exercise its procedural rights, thereby assisting the court in the administration of justice.
In the event of abuse of procedural rights, the court has the right to dismiss or return a complaint, application, petition, or claim, or to apply other measures of procedural coercion. Measures of procedural coercion are procedural actions taken by the court to encourage the relevant persons to comply with the rules established by the court, to perform their procedural duties in good faith, and to cease abusing their rights (for example, in certain situations, the court may even apply such a type of coercion as a fine for cases of abuse of procedural rights). The legal relationship between the court and each participant in the proceedings is subordinate to the achievement of the main goal – the adoption of a lawful and well-founded decision, as well as the creation of procedural conditions for the persons involved in the case to ensure the protection of their rights and the rights and interests of other persons.
In addition, in the event of abuse of procedural rights by a party to proceedings, the court has the right to impose legal costs on that party in whole or in part, regardless of the outcome of the dispute. That is, if the court finds that the actions of a party (for example, the actions of the defendant) constitute abuse, this may be grounds for imposing legal costs on that party, even if the dispute is resolved in favor of the defendant rather than the plaintiff. Therefore, it is important to avoid any signs of abuse of procedural rights in your procedural actions, as well as to point out to the court any possible violations of the prohibition of abuse of rights by the other party to the dispute.
According to the Supreme Court, participants in court proceedings must exercise their civil procedural rights for their purpose, which is either directly defined by the content of a particular subjective right or follows from the logic of the existence of a particular subjective procedural right.
The most common types of abuse of procedural rights include filing several lawsuits with similar subjects and on similar grounds to manipulate the automated distribution of cases among judges, filing several identical appeals/cassation complaints in a row, unjustified or artificial consolidation of claims with the aim of changing the jurisdiction of cases, filing several consecutive motions to correct clerical errors, filing unfounded motions to recuse a judge (panel of judges).
An additional issue related to the abuse of procedural rights is the current digitization of court proceedings. Specifically, automated case distribution systems can sometimes be manipulated by filing numerous similar lawsuits with only minor variations in formal details to assign the case to a particular judge. Such practices compromise the court’s impartiality in handling disputes. Special attention should be given to situations where parties submit multiple electronic documents through the Unified Judiciary Information Telecommunication System (UJITS) during non-business hours or at the last minute before a hearing to complicate or delay proceedings. While these actions do not formally break submission rules, they may be considered abuse depending on the party’s intent.
At the same time, another risk should be taken into account: reasonable actions of participants in court proceedings may be mistakenly or deliberately classified s abuse of procedural rights. Therefore, each case requires a detailed analysis of the good faith of the actions and their compliance with the general principles of judicial proceedings. In this context, proper reasoning in court rulings on recognizing actions as abuse, or, conversely, on refusing to recognize certain actions as abuse, plays an important role.
In addition, it is worth paying attention to the role of judges in preventing abuse. Clarification of procedural rights and the limits of their exercise at the early stages of the process, as well as the balanced application of sanctions, contributes to the formation of a stable legal culture among participants. At the same time, participants in the case should include in their procedural documents arguments regarding the good faith of their own actions and/or the prevention of potential attempts at abuse by their opponents.
In practice, Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm advises and provides legal assistance to clients on preventing possible abuse of procedural rights in court. It is timely procedural actions aimed at preventing illegal abuse of procedural rights that allow effective protection of the client’s interests in court and prevent possible violations by other participants, as the court is not a place for procedural games.
Given the high workload of the judicial system, it is particularly important to effectively detect abuses and take preventive measures. Experienced attorneys can properly record the circumstances of abuse (e.g., failure to appear without good reason, submission of boilerplate applications) and timely file appropriate motions with the court to declare the actions of other litigants unlawful. Preventing the abuse of procedural rights contributes to ensuring effective justice, increasing trust in the judicial system, and strengthening the rule of law. This practice not only protects the rights of bona fide litigants but also disciplines the justice system as a whole.