Legal support for those who are abroad

Ms. Maryna, together with her two minor children, is in Germany, where she has obtained temporary asylum, having been forced to leave her native Kharkiv.

While in Germany, she accidentally learned that the father of her son, whose paternity had been established by a court decision, had filed an appeal in the case of recognition of paternity and recovery of child support, which was being considered by a Poltava court.

Marina could not attend the hearing, and she did not know what to do. She was unable to obtain documents from the court and participate in the hearing. The woman turned to Daria Malinnikova, a lawyer at the Institute for Analysis and Advocacy, for legal assistance.

The lawyer helped Maryna register with the Electronic Court and draft and file procedural statements in the case. She also explained to Maryna the mechanism for participating in a court hearing via videoconference and information on the rights and procedure for appellate review of the case.

The provided legal support yielded a positive result, the court decided to dismiss the appeal of the child's father and uphold the decision of the court of first instance, which recognized paternity over the child and ordered alimony for the maintenance of the son until he reaches the age of majority.

Ms. Maryna will also be able to obtain a copy of the decision through the online resource of the Electronic Court and subsequently obtain a writ of execution for the enforcement of child support from the father.

It is worth noting that under martial law, many people are forced to leave their homes without notifying the court of their change of residence for obvious reasons. In turn, this has led to situations where the court or a party to a case sends documents to another party to the case to a known postal address, but the other person is unable to receive them because they live in another area.

As mentioned above, the E-Court system provides a wide range of opportunities for the parties to a case: both to submit documents and to familiarize themselves with the case file, to receive information on the progress of the case, etc.

If a person is abroad and cannot physically attend a court hearing, there is a certain procedure for holding a videoconference during a court hearing with the parties outside the courtroom.

This mechanism has helped to significantly normalize the administration of justice in the context of martial law in the country and the massive displacement of people, both in our country and abroad.

The NGO “Institute of Analysis and Advocacy” provides free legal aid in Poltava region through cooperation with the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and funding under the civil protection and humanitarian assistance of the European Union.