On 25 April, the Constitutional Court announced that the directive of the Ministry of Justice on attorneys’ rewards (the so-called determination directive,přísudková vyhláška) has to be abolished. The directive stipulated flat rates that meet the amount of money that the civil suit in the civil litigation is brought. In fact, the rates did not respond to the factual scope of activities that the attorneys were expected to do. The lower the amount of money was, the disproportional the rate was no matter the scope of activities that an attorney should have done. It led to the emergence of the so-called market of fractional obligation when big companies has bought obligation. In the civil litigation, the companies earn money on attorneys’ expenses.
Therefore, the Constitutional Court has abolished the directive as it breached the constitutional principle of justice (in terms of proportionality of the punishment and expensens). In the future, the attorneys’ expenses (and the rewards) should respond to the factual state of attorneys’ activities in proportional relation to the sued amount of money (the Constitutional Court renewed the previous directive on attorneys’ rewards from 1996).
For further information, click here (the Court’s websites).