SOLUTIONS FOR BUSINESSES WHEN THE COURT RETURNS A LAWSUIT DUE TO FAILURE TO AMEND OR SUPPLEMENT THE INITIAL SUIT
Filing a lawsuit in a competent Court is one of the methods that businesses use to resolve disputes. During the process of submitting the petition to the Court, there may be unexpected obstacles, such as the Court returning the petition. Many cases involve businesses submitting suit documents and the Court returning the petition, citing a failure to amend or supplement the content of the petition within the specified timeframe. In this article, TNTP will analyze and clarify whether the Court’s decision to return the petition with the reason for not amending or supplementing the content of the petition within the specified timeframe complies with legal regulations and discuss how businesses should handle this situation.
1. Request for supplementary documents and evidence by the Court
After receiving the petition, the Chief Judge will assign a Judge to review the petition. In cases where the documents and evidence provided are insufficient to resolve the matter, the Judge will request the parties to supplement the documents and evidence as stipulated in Article 96.1 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code. In cases where the parties do not provide the required documents and evidence, or provide them inadequately without justifiable reasons, the Court will base its decision on the documents and evidence provided by the parties and collected by the Court in accordance with Article 97 of this Code to resolve the civil case.
According to clause 2 Article 106 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, if the parties have taken necessary measures to collect the documents and evidence but still cannot collect them independently, they may request the Court to issue a decision requiring the authorities, organizations, or individuals holding or managing the documents and evidence to provide them, or they may request the Court to collect the documents and evidence to ensure the proper resolution of the civil case.
Therefore, if the petition files are not sufficient to ensure the proper resolution of the case, the Court has the right to request the parties to supplement the documents and evidence to serve the resolution of the case.
2. The Court returns the petition with the reason that the plaintiff did not amend or supplement the petition within the time frame required by the Court.
In Clause 1 Article 192 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code, it is stipulated: “The Courts shall return the lawsuit petitions in the following cases: The litigators fail to amend or supplement the petitions at the request of the Judges as prescribed in clause 2 Article 193 of this Code.” Accordingly, the judge will return the petition if the plaintiff does not amend or supplement the petition as required by the judge, as provided in clause 2 Article 193 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code.
Clause 2 Article 193 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code states the following: “In cases where the litigators have amended and/or supplemented their lawsuit petitions strictly according to the provisions of Clause 4, Article 189 of this Code, the Courts shall continue processing the cases; if they fail to amend and/or supplement their lawsuit petitions as requested, the Judges shall return the petitions as well as materials and evidences to the litigators.” Clause 4 Article 189 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code specifies the list of documents and evidence to be included with the petition as one of the required contents in the petition.
In cases where due to objective reasons, a business cannot submit all the required documents and evidence with the petition, they must provide the existing documents and evidence to prove their legal rights and interests that have been infringed.
Therefore, when a business has submitted the necessary documents and evidence to prove their legal rights and interests, but they are unable to provide the documents and evidence requested by the Court, it does not fall under the situation where the Court returns the petition because the plaintiff did not amend or supplement the petition, as specified in Article 192.1 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code.
3. What should a business do when the petition is returned
Point b clause 4 Article 194 of the 2015 Civil Procedure Code regulates the procedures for complaints, petitions, and the resolution of complaints and petitions regarding the return of the lawsuit as follows: “Pursuant to materials and evidences related to the return of lawsuit petitions, opinions of representatives of procuracies and involved parties filing complaints at the meetings, the Judge shall make one of the following decisions: To receive back the lawsuit petitions and accompanied materials as well as evidences in order to process the cases.”
As analyzed earlier, when the Court returns the petition because a business was unable to provide the requested documents and evidence, this action is not in compliance with legal regulations. In this situation, the business has the right to file a complaint to request the Court to accept the petition and proceed with the case using the existing documents and evidence to safeguard the business’s rights and interests.
Above are legal insights on how to deal with a situation when a business’s lawsuit is returned by the Court for failing to supplement the petition as required. We hope this article is helpful to you.
Sincerely,
TNTP & ASSOCIATES INTERNATIONAL LAW FIRM
+84903503285
