Establishment of Juridical Facts

Cases on establishing juridical facts are reviewed by the court or appropriate servant at the court.

The court shall determine whether or not fact can be deemed juridical only when it is impossible to otherwise obtain documents confirming these facts or restore lost documents in any other manner.

The court establishes those facts which have no effect on generating, changing or eliminating property rights of citizens or organizations. More specifically, the court reviews cases to establish:

• Kinship between individuals;
• Financial dependency of an individual;
• Paternity, marriage, divorce, registration of changed name and/or surname or adoption;
• Ownership of documents confirming ownership with name, surname and father’s name different from what is indicated the passport or the birth certificate of the owner of such documents;
• Acceptance of inheritance and establishing the place of the opening of inheritance.

An application should be submitted to the court based on the applicant’s place of residence.

The application should provide explanation as to what the applicant need to establish the fact for. In addition, evidence confirming the failure of the applicant to obtain or restore lost documents otherwise should be enclosed within the application.

The application shall be submitted in a written or typed form at the applicant’s choice and there is no specific form to fill out.

In such cases the following documents should be enclosed within the application: a birth certificate and its photocopy, a passport of the citizen of Georgia (an identification document) and its photocopy, a document containing personal data of the applicant different from those in the birth certificate or passport; also, a refusal of an appropriate body or agency (for instance, Social Service Agency, Civic or Public Registry) to correct the mistakes in the document, a receipt of the payment of the due. In some instances, a marriage certificate and its photocopy, and names of witnesses may also be required.

In such cases the following documents should be enclosed within the application: a death certificate of the descent and its photocopy; a certificate issued by the local government body confirming the effective ownership of inherited property. If the applicant fails to produce such a certificate, she or he should present the following documents as a proof that the property is managed by him/her: utility payment and other receipts (if such documents are not available only statements of witnesses will suffice), a photocopy of an identification document, documents confirming kinship with the descent (a birth certificate, a marriage certificate etc), a receipt of the payment of the due, a notary decree on the refusal to undertake a notary act.

While establishing the juridical fact, the court invites interested persons (persons whose legal interests will be affected by the decision to be made by the court).

As the establishment of the juridical fact falls under the category of cases under the competence of the Magistrate Court, the applicant is eligible to paying half of the court fee amounting to 25 GEL.

The applicant is exempt from paying the court fee if:

• She or he is registered in the unified database of the socially vulnerable households and receives allowance;
• She or he has a status of the person with disabilities;

Documents supporting the above circumstances must be enclosed within the application.

A decision of the judge on denying the establishment of the juridical fact may be appealed within 14 days from the day such decision was mad, while a decision made by the authorized court servant (a magistrate) may be challenged by appealing to the same court within 10 days from handing over a decision with supporting justification to the party.

The decision of the court on establishing the juridical fact should be referred to the appropriate body or agency (notary, Public Registry etc) based on the nature of the juridical fact referred to in the decision.