The procedure for appealing the decision of the Medical and Social Expert Commission

The acquisition of disability during martial law in Ukraine has become widely relevant, because a large number of citizens receive combat wounds while performing military tasks at the front, and the Russian Federation is still mass-shelling residential buildings of peaceful Ukrainians.

As a result, this leads to the loss of limbs, the acquisition of mental and nervous disorders, and the appearance of other incurable diseases that directly affect a person's independent livelihood.

Therefore, in this informative article, we will talk about the procedure for appealing the decision of the Medical and Social Expert Commission, if it refuses to assign a person to the appropriate disability group.

What is the procedure for appealing a decision of the MSEC?

From the analysis of the norms of Ukrainian legislation, you can always distinguish 2 ways to protect your legal rights and interests, namely:

• pre-trial appeal to the relevant authorities to appeal the administrative decision;
• appeal to judicial authorities by the procedure prescribed by law.

If we are talking about the pre-trial procedure for appealing a decision of the MSEC, then it involves a personal written appeal of a citizen to the commission where the latter underwent an examination or to the regional MSEC within one month after receiving the corresponding opinion on the refusal to appoint the relevant disability group.

After consideration of the written appeal and the documents submitted by the complainant, a decision is made to conduct a re-examination.

At the re-examination, the commission additionally checks the grounds for the appointed mental disabilities, and in the event of their detection, makes a positive decision in favor of the complainant.

If, even during a re-examination of a person, he was refused assignment to a disability group, then the citizen has the right to appeal such a decision to the Central MSEC of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.

In cases where a person has exhausted all possible means of protecting his legal rights and interests, he has applied to all levels of the MSEC, and he has been refused the assignment of a disability group, then it is necessary to apply to the judicial authorities.

A citizen has the right within 6 months to apply to the court to appeal the decision of the MSEK from the moment he learned that his legal rights and interests were violated. If a person has previously used the pre-trial dispute resolution procedure to appeal the decision of the MSEK, then he has only 3 months to appeal to the judicial authorities.

It is worth noting that when applying to judicial authorities in such categories of cases, a court fee in the amount of 0.4 of the subsistence minimum for able-bodied persons must be paid, which from January 1, 2024 amounts to - UAH 1211.20.

If a citizen is exempted from paying the court fee, it is necessary to provide documents confirming this fact.

Are there any questions regarding the procedure for appealing the decision of the MSEC?

In this case, legal assistance from the Prikhodko and Partners law firm will be more appropriate than ever.

The company's lawyers have an excellent understanding of this problem because they constantly help citizens successfully obtain the appropriate disability group in practice. In addition, we guarantee the result upon application. So hurry up and come to us for a consultation!