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The Background Investigator Goes To Moscow
In a continuing series, The Background Investigator, sends its attorneys to various countries around the world to explore the justice systems and bring back to you their findings. Our ow Fred Frankel visited Moscow. Here is his report:
Moscow
by Fred Frankel
The Moscow criminal courts are divided into 2 two types of courts - the District courts and the City court.
There are 33 District Courts in the city. The city is broken into 10 regions.
There is one City Court that handles cases directly from arrest and from the city courts.
The cases at the city court are for matters that are more serious.
The district court hears lesser crimes and will transfer the more serious matters that have not already been transferred to the City Court.
The Ministry of Information has records for all of Russia and there is a process for obtaining the background certificate.
There is a form filled out and submitted with a person’s passport.
There is no system for a third party to receive the results.
One has to understand that although it is no longer communist the people are still not comfortable with dealing with people they do not know.
The atmosphere I met was one of apprehension and mistrust.
People did not understand what I was trying to accomplish and the fact that I did not know anyone or necessarily have a plan of exactly where the information I wanted was to be found made them very suspicious.
I went to the prosecutor’s office and they would not even meet with me there.
I went to an annex where the scheduling is done and the woman who came out would not even answer any questions.
A trip to the police station gave no information.
There was no one who would meet with us and they referred me to the ministry of Information.
At the District Court the Central Administration District in Moscow I met with the woman who runs the Chancellery office or Records Office,
The records at each District court are not for any other courts.
Their systems are not all on computer; some are paper files stored in boxes.
The system is not very well organized but at the office I was at, they did have a computer system and it could look up by name.
The City Court is much more organized and the building is much more together.
I met with a clerk in the criminal records office who said they could look up by name.
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