Insurance Litigation Against an Insurance Company: The Overall Picture
A dispute with an insurance company usually begins when the insurer fails to pay compensation, pays only in part, or terminates the insurance contract after the insured event has occurred. The adjudication of such disputes is governed by the Civil Procedure Code of Georgia, and command of the procedural rules often determines whether your claim succeeds already at first instance. The substantive grounds form a separate layer; this page is about the court trajectory itself, from the statement of claim to the appeal.
Contents of the Statement of Claim and Attached Documents
Article 178 of the Procedure Code prescribes what a statement of claim must contain: the name of the court; the names of the claimant, representative, defendant, witnesses and other summoned persons, with addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses; the subject of the dispute; the price of the claim; the facts and circumstances relied on; the evidence; the demand; and its legal grounds. A claim filed by a legal entity, entrepreneur or representative must indicate an email address and telephone number.
The claim must be accompanied by the representative's authority, the original proof of state fee payment, and every piece of evidence mentioned in the claim unless submission is impossible for a valid reason. As many copies must be presented as there are defendants. The claim may also invoke the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.
Registration of the Claim and Grounds for Formal Rejection
On filing, the court chancellery registers the claim and, where it is filed against a legal entity, hands the claimant copies of the claim and attachments for delivery to the defendant. Under Article 183, the claim is not registered if: it is not submitted in the approved form; mandatory requisites are missing; the proof of state fee payment is not attached; a document listed in the annexes is missing; the representative's authority is not attached; the claim is unsigned; or fewer copies are submitted than there are defendants. The list is purely formal — at this stage the court does not assess the merits, and the first risk in an insurance dispute is often technical: a missing fee original, a mismatched number of copies, an omitted requisite. The confirmation of delivery of the shipment to the defendant remains decisive later, since its absence is one of the grounds for leaving the claim unexamined.