PART 2: How to Bring a Case to the Court
to the large number of applications, the Court cannot acknowledge the receipt of
the application immediately. The standard Registration Letter is reproduced in
Textbox iii below.
Textbox iii: Registration Letter55
FIRST/SECOND/THIRD/FOURTH/FIFTH SECTION
ECHR-LE1.1R/DATE
Application no.
v.
Dear Sir,
I acknowledge receipt of your letter of [DATE], with enclosures, including a completed
application form.
The Court will deal with the case as soon as practicable. It will do so on the basis of the information and documents submitted by you. The proceedings are primarily in writing and you will
only be required to appear in person if the Court invites you to do so. You will be informed of any
decision taken by the Court.
You should inform me of any change in your address or that of your client. Furthermore, you
should, of your own motion, inform the Court about any major developments regarding the above
case, and submit any further relevant decisions of the domestic authorities.
Please note that no acknowledgment will be made as to the receipt of subsequent correspondence.
No telephone enquiries either please. If you wish to be assured that your letter is actually received by the
Court then you should send it by recorded delivery with a prepaid acknowledgment of receipt form.
Yours faithfully,
For the Registrar
xxx
Legal Secretary
Internally, the application will be forwarded to the legal division of the Registry
in which the lawyers who handle cases against the relevant Contracting Party
are working. The application is then assigned to one of the Registry’s lawyers
who will be working as the case lawyer for that application. This means that applications against Switzerland, for instance, are usually forwarded to the Swiss
Division and will be handled by a Swiss case lawyer familiar with Swiss legislation.
A notable exception to this practice is the handling of applications directed against
Russia, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine and Poland. In 2011, the Court set up a Filtering
Section centralizing the handling of the incoming cases from these fives countries,
55
Source: Council of Europe.
41
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