How a creditor obtains a court order

When this route helps

A court order is a dis­tinct route for the claims listed in Article 161 of the Civil Pro­ce­dure Code. It may fit accrued but unpaid wages, a qual­i­fy­ing alimony claim, debt for listed ser­vices, or written-con­tract debt claimed against an en­tre­pre­neur or legal entity. Start with the claim and fee checker, then review the orig­i­nal records.

A private in­di­vid­ual in Kyiv with a written con­tract against an en­tre­pre­neur in Brovary for UAH 120,000 may pass the pre­lim­i­nary amount check, but this does not es­tab­lish venue or guar­an­tee an order. If the debtor is an in­di­vid­ual under a promis­so­ry note, or the facts need to be re­solved in a dispute, con­sid­er a debt re­cov­ery lawsuit. This guide is for the cred­i­tor; a debtor who re­ceives an order needs the sep­a­rate can­cel­la­tion pro­ce­dure.

Procedure and filing fee

For or­di­nary debt under a written or elec­tron­ic con­tract, Point 7 of Article 161 re­quires the debtor to be an en­tre­pre­neur or legal entity and the amount to be no more than 100 working-age sub­sis­tence min­i­mums. In 2026 that is UAH 332,800. Do not apply this ceiling to wages, alimony or listed utility and com­mu­ni­ca­tions debts. Alimony must also be in a form specif­i­cal­ly allowed by Article 161.

The ap­pli­ca­tion fee is 0.1 of the sub­sis­tence minimum on 1 January of the filing year: UAH 332.80 in 2026. Proper elec­tron­ic filing has a 0.8 co­ef­fi­cient, so UAH 266.24. Ap­pli­cants with qual­i­fy­ing alimony and wage claims have statu­to­ry ex­emp­tions; verify your basis under Article 5 of the Law on Court Fees. Obtain payment details from the of­fi­cial court-fee di­rec­to­ry for the court you ac­tu­al­ly choose.

Steps to file

1. Iden­ti­fy the precise Article 161 cat­e­go­ry and sep­a­rate claims that require a lawsuit. For con­tract debt, check the debtor’s status, con­tract form and amount.
2. Check venue under Article 162 and the general rules. The cred­i­tor’s Kyiv address does not itself de­ter­mine venue: verify the debtor’s reg­is­tered lo­ca­tion and any statu­to­ry al­ter­na­tives. Statu­to­ry al­ter­na­tives may apply to certain claims.
3. Draft the Article 163 ap­pli­ca­tion: court name, party and elec­tron­ic-office details, claim, facts and ev­i­dence list. Attach the con­tract, cal­cu­la­tion, other ev­i­dence and rep­re­sen­ta­tive au­tho­riza­tion where ap­plic­a­ble.
4. Give the cred­i­tor’s account in­for­ma­tion. A legal entity must state its account details. An in­di­vid­ual or en­tre­pre­neur states the account or its absence and, if none exists, a pre­ferred way to receive funds. Where an account is listed, attach a doc­u­ment con­firm­ing it under Article 163(6–7).
5. Verify any ex­emp­tion, filing channel and the chosen court’s payment details. Pay if re­quired, retain the filing proof and monitor the ruling. Article 165 lists grounds for refusal.

Checks before submission

Rec­on­cile the claimed amount with the con­tract, in­voic­es and pay­ments. Check lim­i­ta­tion periods, whether an order was already issued for the same claim, and whether mixed or linked demands fall partly outside order pro­ceed­ings. Check whether the ap­pli­cant must have an elec­tron­ic office. A correct fee does not cure these refusal grounds.

When legal review helps

Seek review if the debtor’s status changed, proof of an elec­tron­ic con­tract is dis­put­ed, several debtors or claims are in­volved, or venue is unclear. Also con­sid­er can­cel­la­tion risk: a fee paid for a refused or can­celled order is not re­fund­ed, al­though Article 164 permits cred­it­ing it toward the fee for a later lawsuit.