An application for clarification of claims (the sample of which is identical to the original application) can be submitted at any stage of the process. The court may regard this event as the basis for the adjournment of the hearing. So, the defendant is given time to prepare for consideration, given the application for changing claims. The plaintiff has the right to make additional claims not specified at the beginning of the consideration of the case.
The plaintiff has the right to reduce or increase the amount of claims. An application for clarification of claims is submitted to the same court where the case is being investigated. When compiling an addendum, the number of the case in the process of judicial review is indicated. Opposite the line “plaintiff” is the last name, first name and patronymic of the applicant, his whereabouts. For citizens, an indication of the place and date of birth is mandatory. Legal entities should set the place and date of state registration. The plaintiff shall also indicate the name of the defendant, his place of residence or location.
The application for clarification of the claim must contain a justification of the reasons in accordance with which additional information is entered. Mandatory and the indication of the basis article for additions. If there are several clarifications, they should be numbered in separate lines. At the end, the plaintiff puts his signature, as well as the date of the additions.
In accordance with the first part of Article 130 of the Arbitration Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, a statement to clarify claims may combine additions that are interrelated on the basis of occurrence and have evidence. If the combination of additions is unreasonable, then, in accordance with paragraph 2 of clause 1 of part 129 of the article, the court will not accept them.
A statement to clarify claims may include interrelated claims, which are presented in the form of a sequential chain. So, the plaintiff may ask to recover a loan, a penalty and interest on the use of a loan; recover the amount of shortage received in accordance with the specified transport documents and registered in one act of acceptance, accepted for payment in accordance with one settlement document; demand recognition of the invalidity of the act and the return of the amount that was paid on its basis and so on.
So, expressing in the statement of claim the requirement to recover the amount of the principal debt, in the statement of clarification, the plaintiff has the right to recover the penalty. In addition, when making amendments to the recognition of the invalidity of the transaction, the plaintiff may request the application of the consequences of invalidity.
Formally, in the legislation there is no such thing as “specification of requirements”. The definition of "increase" or "decrease" in applications is accepted. It is enshrined in article 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.
However, practice shows that more often than not the plaintiff is forced to “clarify” the requirements by drawing up a corresponding application for amendments to the petition. In some cases, such a need arises due to errors of a purely technical nature. For example, a part of the document is missing as a result of negligence or oversight. It also happens that errors in the formulas for calculating the amount of damages claimed are identified during the late recalculation. In such cases, it is precisely the refinement that takes place, but not a decrease or increase in requirements, due to the fact that the object is defined and does not undergo changes.
In some cases, in accordance with its own initiative, the court applies the concept in question for various purposes. Often, a request for clarification of a claim becomes a reason for delaying a lawsuit.
Thus, plaintiffs are often forced to “supplement” their petition without changing its main essence.