Reimbursement of legal aid costs

The issue of reimbursement of attorney's fees is relevant for any party to court proceedings because in the event of receiving a positive decision in his favor, a person can ask the court for reimbursement of various costs incurred by him during the trial.

How such expenses are reimbursed in practice and what peculiarities may arise - we will talk about these issues in this informative article.

What are the procedural stages of reimbursement of costs for legal assistance? 

• Preliminary and approximate determination of the amount of court costs for professional legal assistance, which the party may incur in connection with the consideration of the case. It is submitted together with the first application on the merits of the dispute and it will be necessary to prove the actual amounts that the person spent on legal aid. If a person does not submit an approximate list of the amount of court costs incurred by him, then in such a case the court can reimburse only the previously paid court fee for the case;
• Determining the amount of court costs for professional legal assistance to be distributed between the parties. Most often, in practice, this stage occurs when a party submits a separate application (petition) for the reimbursement of costs for legal assistance before the end of the consideration of the case on the merits.
• Distribution of court costs between the parties. The final stage, at which the court takes into account all the circumstances of the case and decides in what amount legal aid costs will be reimbursed. 

What should be attributed to the costs of professional legal assistance?

• receiving a monetary reward (fee) by a lawyer or an attorney for representing the interests of an individual in judicial authorities;
• provision of consulting services and clarifications on various legal issues;
• drawing up various procedural documents on the case (petitions, statements, complaints, etc.);
• costs associated with gathering the necessary evidence base for the case;
• the cost of the services that the lawyer or attorney spent on his assistant;
• expenses related to the arrival of a lawyer or lawyer in the courtroom and his immediate expectation of the court session (announcement of adjournment, delays in the consideration of the case, etc.);
• other types of legal assistance, which can be provided by persons in the contract drawn up by him. 

What must be taken into account to determine the size of incurred costs for legal assistance?

In addition to submitting a detailed description of the work or services provided, the following criteria for the proportionality of the costs incurred in connection with obtaining the assistance of a lawyer must also be taken into account, namely:

• The complexity of the case (in this context, the typicality of the case is taken into account, that is, how often it occurs in practice, as well as the necessary amount of experience, knowledge and skills possessed by the lawyer to provide professional assistance);
• The amount of work or services provided (for example, the case may not be typical and requires the implementation of a large number of procedural actions: submission of petitions, statements, objections and other procedural documents);
• The time spent by the lawyer on providing professional legal assistance;
• The cost of the claim (refers to cases in which the claim is subject to a monetary assessment) or the importance of the case for the party to the proceedings (the consideration of the case or the rendering of a decision in favor of the party to the proceedings affects the reputation of a person or it has a significant public interest).

If the requirements of proportionality are not met, the other party to the case has the right to ask the court to reduce the amount of court costs for legal aid.

If you still have questions regarding the reimbursement of costs for legal assistance, then in this case you definitely need advice from professional lawyers - the Prikhodko and Partners law firm.

Our team will provide you with all the comprehensive answers that will arise during future cooperation, because we have many years of experience in various fields of law, which in turn allows us to provide clients with only high-quality legal assistance. Get in touch!