The Verkhovna Rada wants to change the rules for reimbursement of court costs

If a party is unable to submit evidence confirming the amount of court costs incurred by it before the end of the court debate in the case for valid reasons, the court, at the request of such party filed before the end of the court debate in the case, may decide on court costs after making a decision on the merits of the claims.

According to MP Oleksandr Yurchenko, this provision of the Code of Civil Procedure should be improved. Therefore, he submitted to the Verkhovna Rada Draft Law No. 13118 of 18.03.2025 «On Amendments to Article 246 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine regarding the decision on court costs».

The author of the initiative referred to the conclusion of the Civil Court of Cassation of the Supreme Court in case No. 285/5547/21, according to which if a party could not submit evidence confirming the amount of court costs incurred by it for valid reasons before the end of the court debate and submits this evidence together with the relevant application after the decision on the merits of the claim, such a party must justify the validity of the reasons for not submitting such evidence to the court before the end of the court debate in the case. In the absence of justification of good reasons or their validity, the court shall dismiss the application for recovery of costs.

In order to ensure the formation of a unified court practice, it is proposed to enshrine this position of the court in the Code of Civil Procedure.

The National Bar Association of Ukraine, which, at the request of the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada, reviewed the draft, noted that the procedure for calculating the fee (fixed amount, hourly payment), the grounds for changing the amount of the fee, the procedure for its payment, the terms of return, etc. are determined in the legal aid agreement (in accordance with Article 30 of the Law «On the Bar and Practice of Law»).

A comprehensive analysis of Articles 137 and 141 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which regulate the criteria for determining the amount of expenses for professional legal aid, gives grounds to conclude that it is the duty of the court to resolve the issue of the distribution of expenses for professional legal aid on the merits (the amount of expenses to be reimbursed), in particular by assessing the evidence submitted by a party using the criteria set out in the above articles. In each particular case, this obligation is realized on the basis of competitiveness and equality of the parties by providing them with the opportunity to express their views. It is based on the results of the assessment of the circumstances of the case and the justifications provided by the parties to the case and the examination of the evidence submitted that the court makes a decision in this part.

The main criteria for determining and allocating court costs are their validity, reasonableness, reasonableness and proportionality in accordance with the price of the claim, taking into account the complexity and importance of the case for the parties.

In view of this, the UNBA Committee on Civil Law and Procedure noted that the introduction of the institution of limitation periods at the stage of determining the amount of court costs creates an additional procedural burden on the parties to the proceedings and the court. It also gives rise to additional grounds for appealing a court decision not only in terms of the amount of costs, but also in terms of the court's assessment of the validity of the reasons for missing the deadline for submitting such evidence. Therefore, it would be more acceptable to retain the provision of Art. 246 of the Code of Civil Procedure in the current version.