ON PROBLEMATIC ISSUES RELATED TO REIMBURSEMENT OF LEGAL EXPENSES FOR PROFESSIONAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE IN ECONOMIC PROCEEDINGS

Abstract

In this article, the author offers his own author’s definition of the concept of “legal expenses in economic proceedings”, since the current economic procedural provisions lack this definition. Guided by the existing legal doctrine, the author suggests understanding this concept as material costs of participants in economic proceedings related to the resolution of legal disputes referred to the jurisdiction of the economic court, which encourage the parties to resolve the dispute out of court. In summary, this article is devoted to highlighting most of the legislative gaps related to reimbursement of legal expenses for professional legal assistance in economic proceedings. In particular, the problem of the absence in the Code of Commercial Procedure of Ukraine of a list of evidence (documents) confirming the fact of legal expenses for professional legal assistance incurred by a participant in economic proceedings, which may lead to a restriction of the right to reimburse for this type of legal expenses, is highlighted. It is emphasized that the list of evidence that confirms the fact of legal expenses for professional legal assistance incurred by a participant in economic proceedings should be determined by the procedural legislation rather than formed through the prism of judicial practice. It is determined that legislative criteria for a detailed description of works (services rendered) should be clearly established, which should comply with the Law of Ukraine “On Advocacy and Legal Practice”. Based on this, the article proposes to determine the procedure for writing a detailed description of works (services rendered) for each lawyer’s fee rate. It is emphasized to be inappropriate for the parties’ procedural obligation to submit to the court a preliminary (estimated) calculation of legal expenses incurred and expected to be incurred by the parties in connection with the consideration of a particular court case. In addition, this paper highlights the problems of the manifestation of excessive formalism principle in economic proceedings, which implies the court's authority to refuse reimbursement to the party in favor of which the court has founded of the legal expenses for professional legal assistance, if the party has not submitted a preliminary (estimated) calculation of legal expenses, but documented them.