What is the evidence of legal fees for their recovery?

The amount to be paid as reimbursement for the attorney's expenses necessary to provide legal aid is determined in accordance with the terms of the legal aid agreement on the basis of evidence confirming the relevant expenses.

The Supreme Court, composed of the panel of judges of the Administrative Court of Cassation, considered what constitutes sufficient evidence in case No. 380/13261/23. The decision of 04.12.2024 was published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions.

The company won a dispute with the tax authorities on the invalidation and cancellation of a tax assessment notice. By an additional decision, the court recovered from the defendant the costs of professional legal assistance. The appeal upheld the position of the first instance court.

Disagreeing with this, the tax authority filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court. In particular, the defendant considered the additional decision to be unreasonable, as it believed that the criterion of the actuality of expenses was not met.

After all, the amount claimed for reimbursement of legal aid expenses was not documented before the additional decision was made, as no documents confirming the fact of payment of the fee were submitted to the court by the plaintiff.

However, according to the case file, the plaintiff attached copies of documents to the application for an additional decision, including an additional agreement, annexes thereto, an act of services rendered, a detailed description of the services performed by the lawyer and the expenses incurred by him to provide legal assistance, and two payment orders.

From the content of the agreement, it was clear that the lawyer provided legal assistance on a fee basis. The client was obliged to pay a fee for the assistance. At the same time, a sufficient confirmation of the fact that legal aid was provided and the client's obligation to pay for it is the execution of an act on the services provided between the parties.

The court of cassation noted that the decisions of the courts of previous instances show that the plaintiff had attached the relevant payment orders to the additional decision. And the defendant did not refute these circumstances cited by the courts in any way.

Taking into account these and other circumstances of the case, the panel of judges concluded that the cassation appeal should be dismissed.

As a reminder, the general rule of Article 134 of the Code of Administrative Procedure is that the parties bear the costs associated with legal assistance of a lawyer. Based on the results of the case, the costs of legal assistance of a lawyer are to be distributed between the parties along with other court costs.