Remarks on the validity of changes to the normative regulation regarding the reimbursement of costs of administrative proceedings, including the costs of legal representation in administrative proceedings

Abstract

The Code of administrative procedure assumes that the costs od evidentiary proceedings are most often borne by the administrative body, which is related do its obligation to establish the substantive truth. Despite the existence of a regulation providing for charging the parties with the costs of proceedings incurred in their interest tor through their fault, it is applied by the authorities with great resistance. However, there is no provision or even a discussed solution regarding the reimbursement of the costs of legal representation in administrative proceedings, which, considering the numerous cases of representation of the parties by professionals legal advisers, seems to be a significant gap and which in turn burdens the budgets of the parties of the proceedings without giving them a chance to recover the expenditure on representative. In court proceedings, these matters are regulated comprehensively and established practice allows the parties to be charged with costs if they lose the case, and also let the parties to recover the costs of legal assistance that they paid during the proceedings. While the differences in the settlement of procedural costs between civil and administrative proceedings are, at least partially, justified by the different model of administrative cases (lack of adversarial proceedings, inquisitorial model), the author considers the lack of legal basis for the reimbursement of legal representation costs in the Code of Administrative Procedure to be a serious legal loophole and anachronism. The article contains arguments justifying the demand for de lege ferenda changes in the scope presented above.