Decisions or actions of state institutions may be appealed to the court. Generally there are three stages of appeal in court.
In general, human rights do not provide for a right to appeal in all cases and all disputes. However, if Moldovan law allows you to appeal a lower court’s decision, which it does in the majority of cases, higher courts at all stages of appeal have to follow the requirements and guarantees of a fair trial.
Stages of appeal:
Appealing a decision or an action of the state institution to the court of first instance.
Under the general procedure, if there is an administrative decision of a state institution or agent, you do not agree with and wish to challenge, you must first follow the preliminary procedure by filing a preliminary application to the particular state institution that issued the administrative decision you do not agree with.
Please be aware that the preliminary procedure is subject to multiple exceptions – in some cases you do not have to follow it at all, thus filing the appeal directly to the Administrative court, in other cases you have to file the preliminary application directly to the higher administrative body. In order to follow the exact and correct procedure, you should consult a lawyer or carefully examine the general rules in the Administrative Code and the special rules provided in other laws.
example The decisions of the National Center for Personal Data Protection are to be appealed directly to the Administrative court.
example If you disagree with a decision issued by a customs official, you must first file an appeal to the central office of the Customs Service. Only then can you appeal that decision to the Administrative court.
Appealing a decision of the court of first instance.
You can also appeal the decisions and judgments of the Administrative court. In Moldova, the majority of decisions and judgements of a lower court dealing with disputes between private persons and the State can be appealed before a higher court – a court of appeal. In the review process, the court of appeal has the same power to examine your case as the lower court (including all disagreements about the facts and law in your case).
Appealing the decision of a court of appeal.
In most cases, the judgements of a court of appeal can be appealed further before a court of appeal on points of law (recurs).
This court will only examine your complaints about the mistakes of a lower court, which are related to an incorrect interpretation of law or violations of procedural rules. These mistakes must be serious enough to lead to an incorrect decision.
A court of appeal on points of law will not examine your complaints about the facts of your case. Since a court of appeal on points of law only deals with complaints about potential violations of law in court procedure, the requirements for your access to the court (such as arguments on which you base your appeal on points of law ) can be stricter than in lower courts. Generally, a court of appeal on points of law examines cases in a written procedure, that is, without a public court hearing.