G.O. Abolonin,

Candidate of Legal Scienes, Consultant on the Legal Support over Investments 

and Court Protection of Rights and Legal Interests of Foreing Investors

The article is devoted to the comparative analysis of the stage of commencement proceedings in civil court in the United States and Russia. The order of commencement a civil case in U.S. federal courts is regulated by Title II of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. As a general rule a civil case regulated is made in the form of filing a suit. Rule 3 FRCP provides that civil proceedings are commenced by filing a suing to the court. U.S. courts are empowered to determine the order of civil proceedings, except in cases where the order of consideration is determined by special rules of the United States Code. Content of the claim must be consistent with U.S. law terminology as well, as the form of the procedural document must comply with the law. If in the statement of claim there is a reference to the rule of law specifying the section or paragraph, the plaintiff must bring the contents of this provision of the text of the claim. This requirement is absent in the Russian civil and commercial (arbitrazh) process that allows many plaintiffs constitute claims referring only to the numbers of articles or paragraphs of law without presenting substantially the content of these articles. 

Keywords: civil litigation in USA; civil litigation in Russia; commencement of the case.