Is it possible to cancel a divorce: in the registry office or court, by mutual consent

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Recently, especially in the capital, the Internet has been replete with all sorts of advertisements about providing assistance to citizens with divorce. “Sellers” of legal services can offer many options: divorce through the court, divorce through the registry office, divorce with division of property, divorce with a claim for alimony for minor children, etc. Companies engaged in this type of activity, from small law offices to large bar associations with an impeccable reputation, offer you, for a certain fee and in the shortest possible time, to help you “throw off the shackles of marriage” and quickly begin to build a new, better life.

But often everything happens completely differently, and what seemed best yesterday will look simply unacceptable today. Family affairs are a delicate substance that is subject to constant change. Yes, we got excited. Yes, they filed for divorce. The judge made a decision. But what can be done if at this stage the spouses decide to keep the family together? What if they made up? Is it too late to “grab your head”?

Not every lawyer, we dare to assure you, will be able to immediately give a plan on how to act correctly in a similar situation. As the popular saying goes, “breaking is not building.” Is it possible to overturn a court decision on divorce? Yes, this is possible, but only in some cases. This will be discussed further in this article. And if you still decide not to get a divorce and preserve your “unit of society,” know that you are doing the right thing. And now, the most important thing is not to panic, but to carefully read our advice.

When a marriage is considered dissolved

Art. No. 25 of the RF IC makes it clear that the moment of the verdict on the annulment of family relations is considered to be:

the date when the divorce through the registry office was officially registered in the civil registration book;
the date on which the court decision received legal force.

The divorce procedure lasts a certain period of time, depending on the complexity of the situation and circumstances. A marriage is considered dissolved not from the moment of filing a statement of claim about the desire to divorce, but after the termination of this process, i.e. after the official dissolution of the family union and receipt of a document confirming this fact.

You can stop the divorce process at any time; to do this, you need to write a petition stating your desire to save the marriage. Both husband and wife must do this. The application must indicate the reason for abandoning the previous claim. If the divorce procedure is canceled through the registry office, you will have to contact a notary office.

If the divorce has been officially registered, then it will not be possible to cancel the decree through the registry office. Through the court, you can try to apply to cancel the divorce decree.

Some couples decide not to challenge the court's decision to dissolve their marriage. The reason for this decision is that challenging a divorce is a lengthy process; it is easier to re-legalize the relationship. The procedure for remarriage does not differ from other cases of marriage.

Refusal of divorce in the registry office

Spouses filing for divorce at the registry office are usually given a month to think about it. If during this time they change their mind about getting a divorce and do not come to the institution, then the application will be considered canceled and the petition for divorce will be annulled.

If a divorce has already occurred in the registry office, and data about this has been entered into the civil status acts, then annulment of the divorce is impossible. However, if the former spouses realized that the divorce was a mistake and they want to become a family again, nothing prevents them from registering the marriage at the registry office again. In this case, its details will be different.

How to cancel a divorce process through the registry office

After filing a petition for annulment, a couple who has changed their mind about getting a divorce must come to the same court in which the original petition was filed to write a waiver of the claim stating the reasons.
The deadline for filing such a claim is 30 days after writing the first application for divorce. After considering the application, registry office employees can make 2 decision options:

Stop the divorce proceedings.
Recognize the claim for annulment of divorce as invalid;

How to appeal a court decision

The grounds for appeal are important. Just not wanting to get divorced is not enough.

What reasons could there be:

Making and processing decisions with violations;
Failure to comply with procedural rules by a judge when considering a case or making a decision.

It is important to know! An appeal is filed with the court before the decision comes into force. If this has already happened, it will not be possible to challenge it.

The step-by-step dispute procedure looks like this:

The defendant who disagrees with the separation draws up and files an appeal against the decision in order to annul the divorce. The complaint is sent through the court that made the contested decision. For example, if a decision of the magistrate court is appealed, documents must be submitted there, but after completing a number of procedural steps they will be transferred to the district court.
The appellate court sets a date for the hearing and sends notices to the participants in the proceedings.
On the appointed day, a meeting is held and the opinions of the parties are heard.

As a result, an appeal ruling is issued. It may overturn the decision of the lower court or leave it unchanged. If the decision is overturned, the case is reconsidered by a different judge, taking into account the ruling.

Documentation

When filing a complaint for consideration by the court of appeal, you will need:

A copy of the contested decision;
A copy of the statement of claim;
Receipt for payment of state duty.

The state duty is 300 rubles, i.e. 50% of the amount paid when filing an application for divorce.

If the deadline for appeal is missed

It is almost impossible to restore a missed appeal period. For a complaint to be considered, there must be very compelling reasons for missing such a deadline. They will have to be supported by documents.

What reasons could there be:

Serious illness, hospital treatment;
Illness of a close relative due to which the person was unable to challenge the decision in time;
The defendant did not receive a copy of the decision within the established time frame due to the fault of the court if he was absent at the hearing when it was made and his representative was not present.

Note! Recovering missed deadlines is always difficult. Medical certificates and other documents may be required as evidence of valid reasons.

Application for cancellation of divorce

In order to challenge a court decision on a completed divorce, the law provides 10 days. The application must be submitted in handwritten or printed form. The appeal must contain:

name of the court, full name of the judge who made the decision on divorce (attach extracts of the decision);
Full name of both plaintiffs, their registration address;
place and date of registration of marriage relations and divorce (attach a copy of the court decision);
grounds for filing a petition to cancel a divorce.

A receipt for the state fee paid is attached to the appeal. In order to challenge a divorce in court with 100% confidence, it is advisable to prepare thoroughly - select any weighty arguments, attach important documents that will help contribute to a positive decision by the judge.

Divorce methods

According to Russian law, divorce is carried out in the registry office or in court.

Documents are submitted to the first instance in the following cases:

mutual consent to divorce;
absence of minor children and property disputes;
the presence of one of the spouses in a colony, if the sentence is more than 3 years;
recognition by the court of a spouse as missing or incompetent.

The divorce procedure in court occurs in a situation where:

spouses have minor children;
the spouses have not reached agreement on the further procedure for raising children and their place of residence;
there are property disputes combined with a divorce claim;
one of the spouses does not consent to the divorce.

Divorce through a magistrate's court is possible if the spouses have no disputes about with whom the child or several children will live, the amount of alimony, and the value of the jointly acquired property declared for division does not exceed 50,000 rubles. In all other cases, the divorce process takes place in the district court.

The parties receive copies of the court decision on termination of marital obligations 1 month after the court hearing and can submit the said decision to the registry office for registration.

The deadline for filing an application to challenge a court decision has expired

The appeal document must be submitted on time. If the court decision has already entered into force, there is hope to restore the period of challenge. Please note that only a valid reason for filing an appeal after the expiration of the period provided by law will be taken into account. It must be documented (illness, business trip, funeral, etc.). They apply to the same court that made the decision and to the same judge.

If the term is restored, an appeal should be filed with a request to annul the divorce. Upon receipt of a refusal to restore the period for challenging, they file a petition of disagreement with this decision.

Arbitrage practice

Practice shows that it is very difficult to achieve annulment of a divorce after the appeal period. This requires strong evidence as well as time investment. The outcome of the case in favor of the plaintiff is possible, rather, in exceptional cases. These include the court making errors during the proceedings, for example, when the defendant was not given information regarding the time and place of the hearing.

Another reason when annulment is possible is only a discovered circumstance that changes the matter. This could be the wife’s pregnancy, about which the plaintiff knew nothing when going to court. According to Article 17 of the RF IC, the husband does not have the right to initiate a divorce without the consent of the expectant mother, not only during pregnancy, but also during the first year of the child’s life.

Thus, annulment of a divorce is possible in some cases, but it is an extremely complex process that requires the collection of documents and other formalities. If the deadline for appeal has already passed, then in most cases it will be easier to register the marriage again at the registry office rather than seek to cancel its dissolution.

Examples

Citizen S. initiated a divorce after being married for 6 years. After 4 years, she got back together with her ex-husband and went to court to annul the divorce due to expecting a second child. It was not possible to renew the marriage, since the court decision came into force, and there were no grounds for annulment. The couple remarried.
The spouses were divorced through the registry office by mutual consent of the spouses. The wife did not appear at the registry office, but submitted a notarized statement and written consent to divorce. After a month, the husband received the corresponding certificate, and the wife threatened to cancel the process. The wife's actions will be groundless, since her application was properly completed.
A divorce took place, after which citizen A. continued her relationship with her ex-husband and became pregnant. The ex-husband refused to recognize the child, so the woman decided to cancel the divorce. The law does not provide for annulment of marriage in such cases, however, if pregnancy occurs before 300 days after the divorce, paternity is recognized by the ex-husband (Clause 2 of Article 48 of the RF IC).

The decision to divorce must be approached with maximum responsibility. The law provides for options for impulsive behavior of spouses, therefore, in case of a divorce in the registry office, a cooling-off period of 1 month is provided, and in case of a divorce in court - 1 month from the moment of filing the application until the date of the hearing is set and within 3 months additionally for reconciliation.

It will be extremely difficult to prove erroneous actions on the part of the court, since judges are aware of possible problems and, within the framework of the law, take all possible measures to notify the parties about the date of the hearing and the possibility of reconciliation. If the interested party is not present at the meeting, according to practice, the marriage is dissolved only the 3rd time. If you find yourself in a difficult situation when divorce turns out to be undesirable, you need to contact the lawyers of the portal ros-nasledstvo.ru, who will help you appeal the decision to dissolve the marriage in court.

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We changed our minds about getting a divorce, but the decision has already been made. what to do?

there is a minor child in the family;
there is a property dispute between spouses.

There is no need for a mutual decision to go to court. The statement of claim is prepared by one of the spouses. The second one acts as a defendant.

Since the claim can be considered by both the magistrate and the district judge, Article 154 of the Civil Procedure Code provides different deadlines for making a decision on the merits of the stated claims. Thus, a magistrate judge is given one month, a district judge – two.

Depending on the procedural situation of the parties, there are various ways to stop or cancel the divorce process.

For the plaintiff, this is a withdrawal of the statement of claim. You can make a request for this at any time while the trial is ongoing. That is, until the judge went into the deliberation room to pronounce his verdict. The document can be submitted to the judge during the hearing. If a break is declared in the hearing of the case, the petition should be submitted to the court office and ensure that it is registered.

The application must include the following information:

surname and initials of the presiding judge;
case or proceeding number;
surname and initials of the plaintiff;
title of the document “Petition”, indicating the essence of the appeal;
date of application to court, subject of claim;
legal grounds for deciding to abandon the claim;
the essence of the petition;
date of preparation of the document, signature, surname and initials of the plaintiff.

The plaintiff can also express his decision to abandon the claim orally. To do this, it is enough to express your decision during the court hearing. It must be entered into the minutes kept by the secretary of the court session.

Since the plaintiff has the right to both file a claim and refuse it, the duty of the court is to, on its basis, in accordance with Article 220 of the Code of Civil Procedure, order to terminate proceedings in the case. This document comes into force in 15 days. This way the marriage survives.

If the plaintiff in the future again decides to file a claim for divorce on the same grounds on which he applied earlier, he will be granted a claim. To go to court, you will have to look for other grounds for divorce.

The second legal basis for preserving the marriage while the trial is ongoing is to enter into an agreement to reconcile the parties. Typically, the parties come to this scenario if the defendant does not agree to the divorce and submits a motion to provide a period for reconciliation. The court itself may take such an initiative. As practice shows, the parties are usually given from one to three months for reconciliation.

We suggest you read: How to understand that it’s time to get a divorce

After the expiration of the period for reconciliation, the outcome of the case may be as follows:

the parties have truly reconciled, then the case must be terminated;
the plaintiff has not arrived in court - the case will be left without consideration;
The plaintiff appeared and renounced the claim - the case will be dismissed.

If the parties fail to reach an agreement, the trial will continue until a decision is made on the merits of the stated claim. As a result, the marriage will be dissolved.

To resume marital relations, former spouses will have to go through a new marriage procedure.

It happens that one of the spouses, unable to withstand the constant quarrels and the unwillingness of the other to compromise, hastily files a claim for divorce in court. This can have a psychological effect on an intractable husband/wife, and, fearing a trial, he immediately goes for reconciliation. In this case, if you want to save your family, you must just as quickly run to court and take the claim back.

The process of resolving cases of refusal of divorce by both spouses in the process of completing the divorce itself is a regulated matter. The actions of spouses who change their minds about getting a divorce depend on how they previously decided to get a divorce.

Therefore, in order to understand this issue, it is necessary to first consider the methods of divorce. Depending on the circumstances, you can get a divorce by applying to the registry office or court.

The option with a registry office is carried out subject to the following conditions:

mutual consent of the spouses;
absence of adult children.

In both cases, to cancel the process and return all documents, you must contact the appropriate institution and withdraw your application or claim.

The period during which the claim can be withdrawn is 30 days; after that, to be able to restore the marriage, the period is extended to 90 days.

Attention

Typical situations that can be considered a valid reason for missing a deadline:

Diseases;
Business trips;
Failure to receive a decision on time.

A petition to restore the term is filed with the court that issued the divorce decree and will be examined by the same magistrate. In case of refusal, such a verdict can be appealed.

Info

You need a lawyer Unlike the divorce procedure itself, its annulment is a very complex and, in some cases, impossible procedure. An experienced lawyer will help with timely advice and give recommendations on further tactics.

Our specialists are ready to advise you right now on any issues related to divorce annulment.

Please note: Article 221 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation stipulates that after a claim is abandoned, its re-filing is not allowed. This means that it will not be possible to change your mind and re-file the same claim - with identical requirements and grounds. That is, if you based your demands to dissolve the marriage on the infidelity of your spouse, and then abandoned this claim, then it is no longer possible to file it again based on the same reason.

Let's take a closer look at the change in the grounds for a new appeal to the court.

As an example, we can consider a situation in which the spouses reconciled, mutually agreeing not to bring the divorce process to an end. Having decided to withdraw the claim, the initiator of the trial indicated as a reason that an agreement had been reached between the husband and wife to change the circumstances that were significant for the family, and there was also a desire to preserve the family for the sake of a full-fledged upbringing of the children.

But then some time passes, and the spouse realizes that nothing has changed, the second spouse refuses to fulfill his part of the agreement, does not eliminate the reasons that once served as a reason for going to court, and also practically does not participate in the upbringing children. Realizing that reconciliation did not produce a positive result, and it was not possible to save the family, the spouse decides to re-file the application for divorce.

In such a situation, you cannot simply take a sample of the old claim and re-submit it to the court in the same form. The text of the claims must be presented in a new way, taking into account changing circumstances.

For example, indicate that, despite all the agreements, thanks to which it was decided to withdraw the application from the court for the first time, it was not possible to achieve the desired changes over the past period. Considering that the second spouse refused to fulfill his obligations and demonstrated a lack of desire to preserve the family, the plaintiff is forced to repeatedly demand a divorce, basing the claim on new circumstances - the impossibility of reconciliation with the spouse.

The established judicial practice in divorce cases, in which the claim is filed again, shows that the court takes the side of the plaintiff and dissolves the marriage.

What to do if the spouses reconciled at the stage of the trial?

According to domestic legislation, namely, the Family Code of the Russian Federation, the court has the right to assign a period for reconciliation to the parties within three months. The purpose of such an “interval” in order to give people the opportunity to check, as they say, their feelings is of an evaluative nature. That is, the judge, having studied your personal situation (motives for divorce, presence/absence of common minor children, housing disputes), can either set this period, give it a minimum, or not give it at all. Such an initiative can come from the court itself, or it can be a satisfaction of the request of the other party who wants to make peace. Thus, if you managed to reconcile either within this period or before the final court hearing, you need (either during the process or before it at any working time) to write a petition to terminate the proceedings, that is, to abandon the claim. This recommendation applies only to the person who filed the claim. Then the judge makes a new ruling, and the marriage is saved. This act must come into force within 15 days. According to the law, you no longer have the right to file a similar claim against the same defendant (Article 221 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).