A Judicial Odyssey. How will the increase in court fees affect?
Contents
C Cases has prepared an analysis of amendments to the Tax Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the “Tax Code of the Russian Federation”), which will affect many participants in the legal services market, as well as business representatives and ordinary citizens.
On July 23, 2024, the State Duma adopted in the second and third readings a law amending the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which will significantly change the amount of state duty when applying to courts.
We will not list the entire list of changes, but will only mention the most significant and significant ones.
Claims
Property claims. For civil and administrative cases, the minimum duty will increase tenfold (from 400 rubles to 4,000 rubles), and the maximum fee by 15 times (from 60,000 rubles to 900,000 rubles)
For comparison, if now, at a claim price of 8,500,000 rubles, the state duty is 50,700 rubles, then after the adoption of the law, it is already 81,750 rubles
For non-property claims, the duty will increase from 300 rubles to 3 000 rubles for individuals, and from 6 000 rubles to 20 000 rubles for legal entities.
Arbitration process
The most significant changes affected the arbitration process.
The minimum duty will increase fivefold (from 2,000 rubles to 10,000 rubles), and the maximum duty will increase by 50 (!) once (from 200,000 rubles to 10,000,000 rubles)
When filing a claim for 20,000,000 million rubles, you will now have to pay 123,000 rubles, and if you wait for the changes, the fee will be a modest 425,000 rubles
Appealing against judicial acts
For individuals, the fee for appealing a court order will be 3,000 rubles instead of 150 rubles in civil and administrative cases, and 10,000 rubles for arbitration cases. For business representatives, the increase will be from 3,000 rubles to 15,000 rubles and 30,000 rubles, respectively.
The amount of fees for cassation appeals will increase for individuals from 150 to 5 00 rubles in civil and administrative cases and to 20 000 rubles for commercial disputes. For legal entities — from an existing 3,000 rubles to 20,000 and 50,000 rubles, respectively.
If you apply for declaring the debtor insolvent (bankrupt), the duty for individuals will increase 33 times — from 300 to 10,000 rubles, and when filed by a legal entity from 6,000 rubles to 100,000 rubles
The law provides for a significant increase in government fees for filing all kinds of applications and complaints, but we believe that there is no practical need to cite them.
The advantages and disadvantages of the upcoming changes.
Disadvantages of the changes
- Restricting the rights of citizens and businesses to access justice. In simple words, due to high duties, many people (especially in the regions of the Russian Federation) and micro/small businesses will have less opportunity to go to courts and appeal against illegal decisions.
- The increase in the state duty will significantly increase the overall legal costs of conducting a case, since in addition to the duty, it is necessary to bear the costs of providing legal services and, often, pay for expensive examinations.
- Private representatives and small law firms, especially in the regions, will lose a large number of clients (follows from the first two points), which, in turn, will have a negative economic effect.
Benefits of the changes
- Reducing the workload of courts and specific judges, especially in Moscow and other large cities, will lead to more detailed and correct consideration of cases (in theory). Currently, about 50% of decisions are appealed in appellate courts (about 400,000 cases!) , followed by an additional 40% of these cases before the courts of cassation (about 170,000 cases), although only about 10% of cases are satisfied with complaints.
- The postponement of court hearings for several months, many hours of delays in court hearings, and the wait for judicial acts to be written for 2-3 months should also come to naught.
- The number of unfounded or obviously excessive claims will be significantly reduced, which will also have a positive impact on the work of courts and qualified representatives.
- The role of mediation and arbitration courts will grow. On many everyday issues, people will begin to negotiate more often. Businesses will prefer the arbitration court, since legal proceedings in it are faster and better than in state courts. Many people were previously put off by the high arbitration fee, which is now equal to the state duty, and, in some cases, lower.
- The role of highly qualified representatives will be strengthened, since now, when drafting claims, the representative needs additional attention to arguments and documents to save the client's money.
Now it is difficult to foresee what changes the new law will lead to, but C Cases lawyers are confident that this will not have a negative impact on our practices, as we always objectively assess the prospects of the case without condemning clients to unjustified expenses.