Organizational structure of the district court

In every Russian city there is a district court, and often not even one. What are the powers of these instances, what are they doing? What is the structure of the district court? All this will be told in the article.

General characteristics of the district court

Due to the legal reform that is taking place in Russia at a rather fast pace, the topic of the article is extremely topical and in demand. Decisions of courts always have priority, and often even decisive.

The Russian regional court is a federal body that is part of the judicial branch of power. In addition, he is part of the courts of general jurisdiction. The action of the district court extends to a certain district unit, which, as a rule, coincides with the administrative-territorial element. The jurisdiction of the court in question is both pre-trial and post-trial proceedings. All functions performed by the district court testify to this instance as the organ of the main link. It is also worth noting that the creation and abolition of the instances in question is possible only because of the adoption of some federal laws corresponding to the topic.

The first group of authorities

What does the district court do? The structure and authorities of this instance will be described below.

Among the main functions and responsibilities of the district court, in particular, there are the following main points:

• Realization of effective justice (trial on the first appellate instance) of criminal, administrative or civil cases in the field of legal proceedings. At the same time, it should be noted that the whole process of considering cases as a first step should be carried out solely or collectively. And the consideration of cases in the order of appeal is always one judge, that is, one-on-one.
• Consideration of cases of a civilian type (except cases that fall within the competence of military courts, or some other specialized authorities, for example, middle courts or the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation).

On what other functions should be performed by the courts in question, will be discussed further.

The second group of authorities

In addition to all of the above, the jurisdiction of district courts includes the following points:

• Consideration of criminal cases. However, some of the cases submitted by the court still can not be considered. So, the exception is, again, cases where the case can be considered either by a magistrate or middle-level courts.
• Control over the performance of their duties by bodies that search for and disclose offenses and crimes.
• Timely appeal to decisions already made on certain cases that have entered into force.

These are all the main duties that any district court must perform qualitatively.

On the composition of the instance

What structure does the district court have? The structure of the district court is enshrined in Article 33 of the Law on Courts of General Jurisdiction.

According to this provision, the considered instance should be formed in structure of the following persons:

• The chairman of the body;
• vice-chairman;
• Judges of the district court.

About judges it is worth noting the fact that they are appointed to the post by presidential decree, and also only in the amount that will be sufficient for the implementation of effective judicial proceedings in a certain territorial unit. In addition, the structure of the district court would be incomplete without a special auxiliary apparatus, which also includes certain persons and specialists. Each of the above employees of the court will be described in detail below.

Status of judges

A judge is the principal person after chairmen who contains the structure of the district court. This profession is probably the most difficult and demanding position in the country. To the judges are set a lot of different claims, criteria and requirements.

All of them are fixed by the law "On the status of judges". What kind of requirements can be distinguished here?

• The judge must be over 25 years of age;
• Must have a higher education, necessarily legal;
• A minimum work experience of five years is required;
• All the necessary qualification examinations must be passed well;
• A special recommendation should be received from the panel of judges;
• The judge should have an excellent reputation, without discrediting his actions, offenses, crimes, etc.

The judgment always depends on the judge. Hence, the main function of this employee is the implementation of fair justice. This is really an important figure, the decision of which depends only on the current legislation. The judge should be honest and fair: both with others and with himself.

On the apparatus of the court

The structure of the district court of the Russian Federation includes a special auxiliary apparatus. Its composition and functions are enshrined in Article 38 of the Federal Law "On Courts of General Jurisdiction of the Russian Federation".

Thus, the auxiliary apparatus includes:

• Assistant to the head (chairman) of the court;
• Judicial assistants (provide necessary assistance to judges in the performance of their duties);
• administrator;
• Secretary (fulfilling his duties, as a rule, during the court session);
• Criminal chancery;
• Office of Civil Affairs;
• The courtroom;
• Personnel department;
• archivist.

Strangely enough, but district courts function, practically, only at the expense of an auxiliary apparatus. It is he who performs such functions as work with judicial practice (its generalization, analysis and collection of court statistics), work on the systematization of legislation, recruitment of specialists, etc. The chairman of the court directs the auxiliary apparatus, and in case he is absent his deputy.

Principles of operation

Before continuing with the story of the structure of the district court of general jurisdiction and its individual units, it is necessary to pay attention to the basic principles and elements of the competence of this body.

So, the federal law on courts of general jurisdiction fixes the following basic principles of the activities of the instances in question:

• Unity of the whole structure;
• Full independence of court personnel;
• The binding nature of all judgments rendered by the court;
• Equality of Russian citizens, both before the court and before the law;
• Principles of transparency and openness;
• The principle of the irremovability of judges;
• The principle of inviolability of judges;
• Full availability of all rights and guarantees for these employees.

Thus, all the principles of activity are fixed legally and are prescribed both in the Constitution and in various federal laws. And what about the competence of the district courts?

About competence

According to the aforementioned federal laws, the district court of the Russian Federation is the authority occupying the position of the middle link in the judicial system of power. What principles of competence of this body can be distinguished? What is the composition of the district courts? According to the law, the district authorities are responsible for:

• Criminal cases;
• Civil matters;
• Administrative cases;
• Appeals for Justices of the Peace;
• Review and review of cases on newly discovered details and circumstances (including decisions already entered into force);
• Studying, summarizing and processing the practice and statistics of the court.

Thus, all cases within the competence of district courts are clearly and clearly enshrined in relevant federal laws and articles.

The first group of the chairman

The chairman of the district court has quite broad and extensive powers. As head of the entire judicial body, the chairman also has personal assistants who provide him with all the necessary documents and information.

And, nevertheless, the head of the jurisdiction in question, without which the structure of the federal district court is impossible, is obliged to perform a fairly large number of functions and meet many legitimate requirements. In particular, the chairman should:

• Independently manage all meetings;
• Appoint individual judges as persons who must preside over meetings;
• Distribute and consolidate duties and functions between court employees;
• Conduct an independent reception of citizens;
• To organize a qualitative functioning of the court, namely timely consideration of incoming complaints and applications.

The second group of duties of the chairman

In addition to the functions mentioned above, the chairman of the jurisdiction in question, to whom the entire organizational structure of the district court is represented, should deal with the following main cases:

• A qualitative study, design and synthesis of all necessary judicial practice and judicial statistics;
• Make documentation in the proper state. Bodies, public and political organizations, individual officials in the case of the causes of offenses, the fight against crime, and so on;
• Supervise the work of the auxiliary judicial apparatus;
• Organize training courses for the judiciary;
• Organize the promotion of legal and legal knowledge;
• Perform other functions, if provided by law.

Thus, the chairman of a district court is required to perform a fairly large number of functions and responsibilities (even with the help of an auxiliary apparatus).

Vice-chairman

As already mentioned above, the structure of the district court includes judges, the chairman and his deputy. What about the deputy of the jurisdiction? What powers does he have?

If the chairman of the district court is absent, then all his functions for a certain time are taken by the deputy; In the absence of deputy chairmen, one of the judges takes over the authority. The same applies to cases where the chairman of the jurisdiction in question terminates or suspends his powers. Also, if no one can accept the duties of the chairman - neither the deputy, nor the judge, the judge from the nearest district body is invited to perform the corresponding duties.

It is also worth noting that all the time that the chairman of the court independently performs his duties, the deputy is mainly engaged in auxiliary activities in the apparatus of the instance.