How to File a Statement of Defence in a Civil Case

When this is needed

This guide is for a de­fen­dant who has re­ceived a ruling opening pro­ceed­ings and a copy of the claim. A state­ment of defence is not a formal “I dis­agree.” It is the doc­u­ment in which the de­fen­dant sets out their account of events, legal ob­jec­tions, ev­i­dence, motions, and pro­ce­dur­al ap­pli­ca­tions.

Many civil dis­putes in Kyiv move quickly through the elec­tron­ic court system and postal notices. So the first step after re­ceiv­ing the doc­u­ments is to check the service date, the dead­line in the ruling, and whether all at­tach­ments were in­clud­ed. For a cal­en­dar ref­er­ence, use the state­ment-of-defence dead­line cal­cu­la­tor.

Applicable deadline and procedure

The court sets the dead­line for the state­ment of defence in its ruling opening pro­ceed­ings. The Civil Pro­ce­dure Code re­quires enough time to prepare the defence and ev­i­dence, and the period may not be shorter than 15 days from service of the ruling. In a par­tic­u­lar case, read both the Code and the ruling itself.

The period usually starts on the day after the ruling is served. If the final day falls on a weekend, it moves to a busi­ness day. If the claim and at­tach­ments were not re­ceived in full, record that im­me­di­ate­ly: in­com­plete service may affect strat­e­gy, but do not simply wait without filing an ap­pli­ca­tion with the court.

Steps to take

First, make a brief outline of the claim: who the claimant is, what relief is sought, the claim value, the facts and ev­i­dence cited, and what the court is being asked to do. Sep­a­rate­ly note the dead­line in the ruling and the date the doc­u­ments were ac­tu­al­ly served.

Next, divide your po­si­tion into sec­tions. Factual ob­jec­tions explain that events oc­curred dif­fer­ent­ly or that the claimant’s ev­i­dence is in­suf­fi­cient. Legal ob­jec­tions explain why a rule was applied in­cor­rect­ly. Pro­ce­dur­al ob­jec­tions concern ju­ris­dic­tion, dead­lines, ev­i­dence, the parties, or the form of the claim.

Then prepare the ev­i­dence. Attach doc­u­ments already avail­able to the de­fen­dant and motions to obtain ev­i­dence that cannot be ob­tained in­de­pen­dent­ly. If there are grounds for a statute-of-lim­i­ta­tions defence, prepare it along­side the rest of your po­si­tion.

The final step is service. Send copies of the defence and its at­tach­ments to the other par­tic­i­pants, and file proof of dis­patch with the court. For elec­tron­ic filing, check file formats, the sig­na­ture, and de­liv­ery con­fir­ma­tion. If the defence may result in a full or partial win, also keep the records needed to recover lawyer’s fees.

What to check before filing

Check whether a coun­ter­claim is needed. If the de­fen­dant has a related claim against the claimant, decide early whether to bring it as a coun­ter­claim. Or­di­nary ob­jec­tions in the defence do not replace an in­de­pen­dent claim.

Review the ev­i­dence sep­a­rate­ly. The court needs doc­u­ments or other ad­mis­si­ble ev­i­dence, not general state­ments: pay­ments, agree­ments, reports, cor­re­spon­dence, pho­tographs, or elec­tron­ic records. If ev­i­dence is held by the claimant, a bank, a public au­thor­i­ty, or another person, prepare a motion to obtain it.

When to consult a lawyer

Consult a lawyer when the claim is sub­stan­tial, the dead­line is close, the doc­u­ments are in­com­plete, or there is a lim­i­ta­tion-period issue, a pos­si­ble coun­ter­claim, or complex ev­i­dence. An error in the defence can affect the whole case: ar­gu­ments not raised on time can be dif­fi­cult to add later without ex­plain­ing the delay.

For a Kyiv case, a con­sul­ta­tion can quickly clarify the dead­line, the struc­ture of the ob­jec­tions, the ev­i­dence to gather, and which pro­ce­dur­al ap­pli­ca­tions should ac­com­pa­ny the defence rather than wait until the first hearing.