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The Law of Ukraine No. 3200-IX as of June 29, 2023, provides for the mandatory registration of an e-cabinet in the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System (UJITS) for all legal entities. For commercial proceeding, the changes take effect on October 18, 2023, while for administrative and civil proceedings – on February 20, 2024.

Possible consequences of a breach of a legal entity’s obligation to register the e-cabinet include:

• delay or dismissal of submitted applications without further consideration (including claims), complaints (including appeals or cassations), petitions;
• disregard of the response to a claim, appeal or cassation;
• failure to receive copies of documents from other participants in the case.

Thus, the Law No. 3200-IX amended the Code of Administrative Procedure, the Commercial Procedure Code and the Civil Procedure Code, inter alia, by implementing the obligation to register an e-cabinet in the UJITS for many subjects, including all state authorities and legal entities.

Previously, such an e-cabinet was called as “official electronic address” and registration was mandatory only for specific subjects, such as lawyers, notaries, state authorities and local self-government bodies. Moreover, there were no significant sanctions for non-compliance with such obligation.

The Law No. 3200-IX extends this obligation to all legal entities without exception and introduces serious consequences for its violation. Moreover, procedural codes include a provision stipulating that the consequences of non-compliance with this obligation apply even if a legal entity is represented by an attorney-at-law.

What are the risks of non-compliance with the obligation to register an e-cabinet in UJITS?

From the moment these provisions of Law No. 3200-IX come into effect, all legal entities and other specified subjects will be obliged to have a registered e-cabinet in UJITS, otherwise:

• Other participants in the case will be exempted from the obligation prescribed by procedural law to provide copies of documents to another participant if such a participant has not fulfilled his obligation to register e-cabinet in UJITS (para 2 of part 7 of Article 42 of the Commercial Procedure Code, para 3 of part 7 of Article 43 of the Civil Procedure Code, para 3 of part 9 of Article 43 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX).

Please note that the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX DOES NOT exempt subjects of authority from the obligation to send copies of documents to the party in a case which does not have an e-cabinet.

• The court will leave without consideration the claims of individuals who have not fulfilled their obligation to register e-cabinet in UJITS (para 2 of part 1 of Article 174 of the Commercial Procedure Code, para 2 of part 1 of Article 185 of the Civil Procedure Code, para 2 of part 1 of Article 169 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX). The same shall apply to:

- appeals (part 2 of Article 260 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 2 of Article 357 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 2 of Article 298 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure Code as amended by Law No. 3200-IX);

 - cassation appeals (part 2 of Article 292 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 2 of Article 393 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 2 of Article 332 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX);

 - applications for the review of a court decision based on newly discovered or exceptional circumstances (part 3 of Article 323 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 3 of Article 427 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 3 and Article 366 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX);

 - applications for the restoration of lost judicial proceedings (part 1 of Article 361 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 1 of Article 492 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 1 of Article 388 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX).

• The court will return the following documents submitted by individuals who have not fulfilled their obligation to register an e-cabinet in UJITS:

- applications for securing a claim (part 7 of Article 140 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 10 of Article 153 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 7 of Article 154 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX);

 - applications for securing evidence (part 4 of Article 111 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 4 of Article 117 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 3 of Article 116 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure);

 - written applications (petitions, objections) without consideration (part 4 of Article 170 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 4 of Article 183 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 2 of Article 167 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX);

 - applications for the annulment of decisions of the arbitration court (including international commercial arbitration under the Civil Procedure Code) (part 3 of Article 346 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 5 of Article 455 of the Civil Procedure Code as amended by Law No. 3200-IX);

 - applications for the issuance of an order for the enforcement of decision of the arbitration court to the applicant without consideration (part 3 of Article 352 of the Commercial Procedure Code as amended by Law No. 3200-IX);

 - applications for the issuance of an enforcement order for the enforcement of decision of the arbitration court (part 4 of Article 484 of the Civil Procedure Code as amended by Law No. 3200-IX).

• The court will refuse to issue a court order if the party of the proceeding does not have a registered e-cabinet in UJITS (para 2-1 of part 1 of Article 152 of the Commercial Procedure Code, para 2-1 of part 1 of Article 165 of the Civil Procedure Code as amended by Law No. 3200-IX).
• The court will have the right to decide the case based on the available materials if a response is submitted by a person who has not fulfilled its obligation to register an e-cabinet in UJITS (part 10 of Article 165 of the Commercial Procedure Code, part 9 of Article 178 of the Civil Procedure Code, part 7 of Article 162 of the Code of the Administrative Procedure as amended by Law No. 3200-IX).

Therefore, in fact if a person who is required to have e-cabinet does not have one, only on this basis the court will have the right not to accept and return to such person all its appeals, petitions and applications, and will have the right to consider the case disregarding documents provided by such person, as well as other participants in the case will have the right not to send copies of documents to such a person.

When may the above-mentioned negative consequences for failure to register an e-cabinet in UJITS occur?

Law No. 3200-IX will enter into force on October 18, 2023. Accordingly, by this date, all persons defined by law, except for legal entities of private ownership, shall have a registered e-cabinet in UJITS.

For private legal entities in civil and administrative proceedings, this obligation will come into effect on February 21, 2024.

Hence, according to Para. 1 of the Final and Transitional Provisions of Law No. 3200-IX: this Law shall enter into force on the day following its publication and shall be enforced in 90 days after its publication, except for, in particular, subpara. 1 of para. 2 and of subpara. 1 of para. 3 of section I of this Law in terms of mandatory registration by legal entities (private form of ownership) of e-cabinets in the Unified Judicial Information and Telecommunication System or its separate subsystem (module), which ensures the exchange of documents, which will be implemented after seven months from the date of publication of this Law.

That is, private legal entities still have time to register e-cabinets in UJITS for civil and administrative proceedings.

Please note: this exception does not apply to commercial proceedings, therefore, legal entities of private form of ownership are required to register e-cabinets in UJITS by October 18, 2023, otherwise commercial courts will have the right to return and leave without movement the applications of such entities and apply other negative consequences provided for by the Commercial Procedure Code for legal entities without an e-cabinets in UJITS.

Therefore, we advise legal entities to register e-cabinets in UJITS as soon as possible by October 18, 2023, in order to avoid undesirable consequences associated with the implementation of Law No. 3200-IX.

The above commentary presents the general statement for information purposes only and as such may not be practically used in specific cases without professional advice.

Kind regards,

© WTS Consulting LLC, 2023

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