The Pervomaysky District Court of Rostov-on-Don and child return cases under the 1980 Hague Convention

Article 244.11 of the Russian Code of Civil Procedure assigns child return and access cases to the Pervomaysky District Court of Rostov-on-Don when the child is present within the Southern Federal District. What matters is where the child actually is, not where the parents are registered or where the respondent lives.

The Southern Federal District includes, among others, the Krasnodar Territory, the Rostov, Volgograd and Astrakhan Regions, the Republic of Adygea and the Republic of Kalmykia.

For families from the Krasnodar Territory or the Volgograd or Astrakhan Regions, this means the application is heard not in their own region but in Rostov-on-Don, the administrative center of the district.

A typical scenario in such cases is that a child is brought to Russia for the holidays or 'for a while' and is then not returned. It is then particularly important to show where the child habitually resided before the trip and what length of stay the parents agreed on: correspondence, return tickets, school and medical records.

Address: 29 Metallurgicheskaya Street, Rostov-on-Don, 344029. Official website: pervomajsky.ros.sudrf.ru (in Russian).

The application is heard within no more than 42 days of its acceptance by the court, with the mandatory participation of the prosecutor and the guardianship authority. Appeals against decisions of the Pervomaysky District Court of Rostov-on-Don are heard by the Rostov Regional Court: the appeal is filed within 10 days of the decision being issued in final form, and the appellate court hears the case within no more than one month.

If the child is in the Southern Federal District, a lawyer can help confirm the jurisdiction of the Pervomaysky District Court of Rostov-on-Don, prepare the application and evidence, and — where there is a risk that the child will be taken away — apply for interim measures.