Pros and cons of claiming reimbursement of legal fees in court proceedings, necessary documents to submit, how to object to the recovery of such expenses, and when the court may reduce the amount?
These issues were discussed by lawyers during a webinar. The event speaker was lawyer Daria Tarasenko.
The speaker reminded that according to paragraph 14 of the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CMCE) on measures facilitating access to justice No. R(81)7, except in special circumstances, the winning party should generally receive reimbursement of expenses and costs, including lawyer fees, which it has reasonably incurred in connection with the proceedings.
The procedure for recovering expenses related to legal assistance by a lawyer is provided for in Art. 134 of the Code of Administrative Proceedings, Art. 137 of the Civil Procedure Code, and Art. 126 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The Cassation Administrative Court in case No. 240/32993/23 stated (decision of 23.01.2025) that the purpose of recovering expenses for legal assistance is not only to compensate the party in whose favor the decision was made for the losses incurred, but also in a sense encourages the party with governmental powers to refrain from actions that would necessitate the restoration of violated rights and interests of individuals and legal entities in the field of public law relations.
Restoring financial justice for the client, preventing law violations by the respondent in the future, and providing an incentive for the respondent to resolve the dispute before the court makes a decision – these are the arguments that, according to the speaker, a lawyer should consider when deciding whether to recover the costs of legal assistance provided to the client from the opponent. Of course, delays in the case review and the court decision coming into force are possible. Additional time will also be needed to prepare the necessary documents, and the client may be disappointed due to the court’s reduction of the reimbursement amount.
At the same time, a claim for reimbursement of legal fees can be made in the statement of claim (for the respondent in the response to the statement of claim, and for a third party – in written explanations).
To do this, you need to submit to the court:
- a contract with the lawyer;
- an addendum to the contract specifying the fee amount (if such a condition is not included in the contract itself);
- a description of the work (services) performed by the lawyer (not required for a fixed fee – according to the practice of the Supreme Court).
It is also recommended to submit an invoice for the lawyer’s services and a receipt for payment of the lawyer’s services.
Objecting to the recovery of expenses in full is possible due to the absence of necessary documents and untimely assertion of claims. The application to reduce the compensation amount must contain justification as to why the amount of the claimed expenses is disproportionate to the complexity of the case, the price of the claim, the volume of materials in the case, the number of prepared procedural documents, the number of hearings, the duration of the court proceedings, etc.
In case of non-compliance with the requirements of Part Five of Article 134 of the Code of Administrative Proceedings, the court may reduce the amount of expenses for legal assistance that are subject to distribution between the parties, but only at the request of the other party, which is obliged to prove the disproportion of expenses with the services provided by the lawyer.
However, in practice, courts increasingly take the initiative to reduce the reimbursement of expenses related to the provision of legal assistance by a lawyer and recovered in favor of the party whose claims have been satisfied by the court, noted D. Tarasenko. In her opinion, such actions by the court contradict the legislation, as stated by the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court in case No. 755/9215/15-ц (decision of 19.02.2020): the interested party must take certain actions aimed at reimbursing the expenses for professional legal assistance from the other party, and the other party has the right to object to such claims, which excludes the court’s initiative regarding the reimbursement of expenses for professional legal assistance to one of the parties without appropriate actions on the part of such a party.
The speaker provided practical advice to listeners on claiming reimbursement of legal fees from a lawyer, discussed the peculiarities of recovery in appellate and cassation instances, provided samples of procedural documents, and referred to relevant court decisions.