RETURN OF COURT FEE IN CONNECTION WITH LEAVING THE APPLICATION WITHOUT CONSIDERATION IN THE CIVIL PROCEEDINGS OF UKRAINE

Abstract

The article researches the peculiarities of return of court fees in connection with the completion of a civil case without a court judgement in the form of leaving the application without consideration of legal regulation, analyzes the issues of this institute in judicial practice, and provides suggestions for improving its legal regulation. Attention has been drawn to the fact that since the court fee is one of the basic categories of access to justice, and therefore an element of the right of a person to judicial protection enjoyment, and the need to ensure the balance of interests of the state and the individual in regulating the legal basis of court fees payment, the grounds for the application of this procedural institute must be exhaustive and may not be subject to extended interpretation. Based on the comparative analysis of the legal regulation of the return of court fees institute, and in particular the legislative regulation of such grounds for its application as completion of civil proceedings without a court judgement in the form of leaving the application without consideration, it was found a legislative tendency to reduce the list of the very grounds for leaving the application without consideration, with the use of which the return of court fees is allowed. Examples of jurisprudence in the field of application of each ground of leaving the application without consideration through the prism of the institute of return of court fees have been given. Attention has been drawn to the fact that although in the process of amending the civil procedural legislation, which took place with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine "On Amendments to the Commercial Procedural Code of Ukraine, Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine, Code of Administrative Procedure of Ukraine and other legislative acts", such grounds as leaving by the plaintiff (his/her representative) of the courtroom was removed from the "general list" of grounds for leaving the application without consideration under Part 1 of Art. 257 CPC of Ukraine, it still exists, because it was left by the legislator in the article governing the consequences of non-appearance at the hearing of the parties (Part 6 of Art. 223 CPC of Ukraine). It has been constituted that item 4 of Part 1 Art. 7 of the Law of Ukraine "On Court Fees" provides the opportunity to return the court fee in case of completion of a civil case without a court judgement in the form of leaving the application without consideration on all grounds except those that constitute exceptions by law, and in particular the grounds established by items 3, 5 and 9 of Part 1 Art. 257 CPC of Ukraine, as well as Part 6 of Art. 223 CPC of Ukraine.