The most "folk" justice. The institute of justices of the peace in Tatarstan is 25 years old
If russian citizen encounters the judicial system, then in 70 percent of cases this will happen in the courts of justices of the peace, justices of the peace are the primary link in the system of courts of general jurisdiction. They consider all categories of cases, but, as a rule, these are simple cases - if criminal, then for crimes where the punishment term is up to three years, if financial disputes, then the amount of the dispute does not exceed 50 thousand rubles, if we are talking about divorce, then there will be no dispute about children in the magistrate's court.
The institution of justices of the peace existed in Russia before the revolution of 1917, in Soviet times it was abolished and revived only at the end of the 20th century. In 2025, the justice of the peace of Tatarstan celebrates its quarter-century anniversary. About how this institution was revived in the republic and what it is today, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustem Zagidullin told the correspondent of the magazine «Tatarstan» in an interview.
GET AS CLOSE TO THE POPULATION AS POSSIBLE
- Rustem Ildusovich, why was it decided to revive the institution of justices of the peace?
- In my opinion, there were two main reasons. First: there was a colossal workload on district and city courts, mainly in small cases. Second: there was a desire to create a judicial system as close to the population as possible. And in 1998, the law «On justices of the peace in the Russian Federation» was adopted. And in 2000, a similar law was adopted in Tatarstan.
- How did it all start in 2000 and what has been done in 25 years?
- In 2000, 168 judicial districts of justices of the peace were created in the republic. Today, by the way, there are 190 of them, based on the population of 15 to 23 thousand people per district. In the fall of 2000, the first 103 people were appointed by the State Council of the Republic to the position of justices of the peace. Five of them, by the way, are still working.
The system was created practically from scratch. There were no premises. When buildings for the courts were found, they often did not have basic amenities, not to mention the necessary computer equipment. Even paper and office supplies were in short supply.
Today, the situation has changed dramatically. Especially after 2014, when the state program «Development of justice in the Republic of Tatarstan» was approved by the decision of the Rais of the Republic of Tatarstan Rustam Nurgalievich Minnikhanov. It includes the regional project «Development of social and engineering infrastructure», which provides for both material and technical support and major repairs of buildings. If in 2000 the area of the court area was 90 square meters, today it is more than 180, according to this indicator, Tatarstan is one of the leaders in the Volga Federal District. The sites are now equipped with everything necessary - furniture, equipment, video conferencing systems...
EXPERIENCE - YES, CONFLICT OF INTEREST - NO
- Can we draw an approximate portrait of a justice of the peace in Tatarstan?
- The average age is 45 years. Slightly more women - 97 people against 81 men. But we must take into account that there are also the offices of justices of the peace: secretaries, office workers... And there, 97 percent of the employees are women.
- What do you need to become a justice of the peace?
- First, you must be at least 25 years old. Then, you must have at least five years of legal experience. And what is important: legal experience begins to be calculated from the moment you receive your education. That is, if a person worked somewhere during his student years, this does not count. There is logic in this. A judge is a person who must make decisions concerning the fate of other people, and without certain life and professional experience, there may probably be some distortions here.
The State Council of the Republic approves justices of the peace - from among those proposed by the Supreme Court. But first, a person must pass a serious qualification exam. Special attention is paid to such a concept as a conflict of interest. For example, if a wife wants to become a judge, and her husband works in the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the advocacy, this is a conflict of interest, in this case the person will not be approved.
- As far as we know, justices of the peace have a huge workload...
- This is true, and it increases every year. In 2005-2008, justices of the peace considered about 300 thousand cases per year, about 1800 cases per judge. And last year they considered 872 thousand cases, more than 4.5 thousand cases per judge. The numbers are large, but despite this, we can confidently say that the justice of the peace copes with this workload.
JUSTICE IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT
- Today we have a trend towards universal digitalization. Does this also affect the work of justices of the peace?
- Digital solutions are created to simplify the interaction of citizens with government bodies. And the judiciary is no exception. «The Electronic Justice» project is being implemented - the ability to apply to the magistrate's court electronically. Before this, it was necessary to either personally bring documents to the court (and for this, take time off from work, spend time on the trip), or send papers by mail (this is again a waste of time and money). So electronic filing of an application makes the task much easier for citizens. The service is becoming increasingly popular: in 2023, just over 90 thousand applications were filed electronically, and in 2024 - already 142 thousand.
Electronic interaction of courts with the bailiff service, which ensures the execution of court decisions, is also convenient. Last year, judges sent bailiffs more than 170 thousand documents electronically.
This year, we plan to transfer the interaction of magistrates' courts with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosreestr and tax services to an electronic format.
A CASE FROM PRACTICE…
- We talked about the fact that justices of the peace consider so-called minor cases. That is, there are no high-profile cases in this system?
- High-profile, not high-profile, but interesting cases do happen. For example, recently a case was considered: a certain citizen, having learned that one of the stores had a one plus one promotion (you buy one product and take the second for a ruble), bought 31 items at the regular price and another 31 items for a ruble each. That is, he bought 62 items. And at home he «discovered» that everything that was bought for the regular price did not fit him. But what was bought for a ruble fit him perfectly. And he went to return what was bought at full price. The store refused him. He went to court. But the judge sided with the store, saying that the citizen was abusing his rights in this case.
- Probably, the citizen was not very happy… In general, do complaints about justices of the peace often come in? Or maybe, on the contrary, they write letters of gratitude?
- According to the Constitution, justices of the peace are independent from the executive authorities, so their work is controlled by the judicial community. But the employees of the judicial apparatus are employees of the Ministry of Justice, so if there are any complaints about their actions, we, of course, react. Last year, there were about one and a half thousand such complaints. It seems like a lot. But most of them turned out to be unfounded upon inspection. In general, if there are any complaints about the work of the apparatus of justices of the peace, you can contact us both in writing and electronically. There is a phone number - 8 (843) 222-60-30.
But there are also many positive reviews about the work of the justices of the peace. Recently, for example, a disabled woman from Naberezhnye Chelny wrote a letter of gratitude: she cannot come to the site herself, and a court employee consulted her over the phone, helped her resolve the issue. They did everything possible to make it convenient for a person with disabilities to interact with the court. Of course, it is very nice to receive such reviews.
Based on materials from the magazine "Tatarstan"
jointly with the Ministry of Justice
of the Republic of Tatarstan