How to file a cassation appeal in criminal proceedings

When this guide is useful

Use this guide after ap­pel­late review of a con­vic­tion or another de­ci­sion in crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ings. Start with Article 424 of the CPC rather than a cal­en­dar: not every ruling can be chal­lenged in cas­sa­tion. Article 425 iden­ti­fies who may file and which part of a de­ci­sion they may chal­lenge. If you are still prepar­ing an appeal, check the crim­i­nal appeal route first.

For a Kyiv case, compare the full name and date of the Kyiv Court of Appeal de­ci­sion with the case ma­te­ri­als and elec­tron­ic account. If spe­cialised ju­ris­dic­tion or another ap­pel­late court is in­volved, use the court that ac­tu­al­ly issued the de­ci­sion rather than as­sum­ing ju­ris­dic­tion from the city name.

What deadline or procedure applies

Article 426 of the CPC allows three cal­en­dar months from pro­nounce­ment of the ap­pel­late de­ci­sion. For a con­vict­ed person held in custody, the start is service of a copy on that person. Doc­u­ment this special cir­cum­stance; later receipt of a copy by another par­tic­i­pant does not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly change the general start date.

Under Article 115 of the CPC, the event day is ex­clud­ed from the running period. A period mea­sured in months ends on the cor­re­spond­ing date in the final month, or its last day if there is no cor­re­spond­ing date. If that final day is non-working, it moves to the next working day. The crim­i­nal cas­sa­tion dead­line cal­cu­la­tor gives a pre­lim­i­nary date, but does not check every public holiday, special non-working day or court reg­istry sched­ule. Its result does not es­tab­lish ap­peal­a­bil­i­ty.

For example, if the ap­pel­late de­ci­sion was pro­nounced on 31 August 2026, the pre­lim­i­nary three-month dead­line is 30 No­vem­ber 2026 because No­vem­ber has no 31st day. This is an il­lus­tra­tive cal­cu­la­tion, not a date for another case.

Steps to take

Obtain the full ap­pel­late de­ci­sion, first-in­stance de­ci­sion and appeal ma­te­ri­als. Record the pro­nounce­ment date. If the con­vict­ed person is in custody, sep­a­rate­ly obtain proof that a copy was served on that person. Compare dates with the hearing record, elec­tron­ic notices or in­sti­tu­tion doc­u­ments. Do not pick the later date simply because it offers more time.

Check Ar­ti­cles 424–425 of the CPC and then iden­ti­fy your cas­sa­tion ground. A cas­sa­tion appeal should show mis­ap­pli­ca­tion of crim­i­nal law or a sub­stan­tial pro­ce­dur­al vi­o­la­tion, not merely a dif­fer­ent view of witness tes­ti­mo­ny. Link each vi­o­la­tion to a spe­cif­ic ap­pel­late con­clu­sion and its effect on the outcome.

Under Ar­ti­cles 426–427 of the CPC, file di­rect­ly with the cas­sa­tion court. Before filing, check the court details, content re­quire­ments, sig­na­ture, au­thor­i­ty, re­quired copies and at­tach­ments. Keep proof of dis­patch. For someone in custody, a record of de­liv­ery to the in­sti­tu­tion ad­min­is­tra­tion within the time limit matters.

What to check before filing

Compare the final day with the of­fi­cial cal­en­dar and the court’s actual doc­u­ment-receipt arrange­ments. In-person filing late in the day may depend on reg­istry hours. If filing by post or elec­tron­i­cal­ly, keep proof of com­plet­ed sub­mis­sion, not merely a draft or ad­dressed en­ve­lope.

If the dead­line may have passed, submit an ap­pli­ca­tion to restore it with the appeal, a chronol­o­gy of the ob­sta­cle and sup­port­ing ev­i­dence. Ar­ti­cles 117 and 615 of the CPC require as­sess­ment of the spe­cif­ic cir­cum­stances. Martial law alone, without ex­plain­ing why timely action was im­pos­si­ble, does not guar­an­tee restora­tion.

When to ask a lawyer

Prompt review is useful when little time remains, the person is in custody, the records show dif­fer­ent dates or the de­ci­sion may not be open to cas­sa­tion. For a Kyiv pro­ceed­ing, a lawyer can check the ap­pel­late de­ci­sion, el­i­gi­bil­i­ty and legal grounds, and how to prove timely de­liv­ery. If an in­ter­na­tion­al ap­pli­ca­tion is con­sid­ered after do­mes­tic pro­ceed­ings end, sep­a­rate­ly check the con­di­tions for ap­ply­ing to the ECHR; the cas­sa­tion cal­en­dar does not au­to­mat­i­cal­ly de­ter­mine the time limit for every such ap­pli­ca­tion.