Judicial immediacy - what is it?

The principle of the immediacy of the trial determines the mechanism for considering and accepting the materials of the civil case by the court. In accordance with the Civil Procedure Code, the courts of first instance directly examine the evidence of the case.

Definition of the principle

So, let's define the term "judicial immediacy". That this basic principle of evidentiary activity, which establishes the truth of the facts and information necessary for judicial consideration and making informed decisions, became clear even at the time of Roman law. It consists of the following parts:

• The court bases its decision, relying solely on the evidence examined in the courtroom , as only this ensures the validity of the final sentence.
• Investigating the circumstances of the case, the court must obtain information from direct sources. In the process of consideration of the case, the courts of first instance must directly consider all available evidence: to hear the testimony of the persons participating in the case, the testimony, the examination data, inspect the material evidence and read the written evidence. It is these conditions that ensure the immediacy of the trial and are the basis for making the right decision.
• When analyzing the evidence of the case by all parties to the process, judicial immediacy is necessarily used. What does this mean in practice? This means that the court is obligated to rely fully on the court session on the initial evidence, identified by the direct action of certain events, such as witnesses' information, interrogations of the victims and accused, the data of the expert examinations, information gathered by the investigation and the defense.

The requirement of the principle of spontaneity in the use of initial evidence does not at all mean that the derived evidence that emerged in the course of the proceedings can be neglected. Derived evidence can supplement or refute the original.

Exceptions to the principle

Do not forget that in the judicial practice there are cases when it is impossible or inappropriate to directly perceive the factual information by the court.

In such cases, the judicial principle of immediacy has a number of exceptions provided for in the procedural Civil Code.

For example, in the absence of a witness or a person participating in a case for a valid hearing, the court may issue a court order for their interrogation at the place of residence or residence.

The witness is interrogated at the place of stay only in case of failure to appear in court due to disability or state of health, making his personal presence impossible at the court session. In this case, information for the court session is attached to the case by the relevant judicial records of the interrogation.

Cases of various evidence, such as questioning a witness, appointing and conducting expert examinations, reclaiming and examining material and written evidence before initiating a case and considering it on the merits, will be an exception to this principle. And in this case, it is the judge who will be the subject of direct perception, even in the case of the collegium of judges.

Individual and collegial examination of the case

The principle of the immediacy of the trial ensures that the decision-making will be based only on evidence obtained directly from sources that have information, the testimony of which has been thoroughly verified in the court session.

When considering a case collectively from the beginning to the end of the process, the composition of the judges should remain unchanged. A single consideration provides for one judge for the entire time of the trial. Participate in the process of issuing a procedural document based on the results of consideration - determination or decision - can only be the judges who participated in the study of the circumstances of the case. When the application for the challenge of the judge or the composition of the court is dismissed or if the judge (or one of the collegium judges) leaves the process for valid reasons (business trip, illness, etc.), the consideration of the current case begins from the very beginning. Otherwise, the new judge will not have all the necessary information to conduct the trial, and judicial spontaneity will not be observed. That this affects the validity of the final decision is understandable to all.

Justification of judgments

The Civil Procedure Code specifies in a separate article what judicial litigation is. That this is absolutely necessary for the independence of the judge in his assessments of the case from the position of the bodies of preliminary investigation and inquiry is proved by centuries of judicial practice