Report from the presentation of the Analysis of court fee waiver system in Serbia - September 6, 2016

Presentation of the Analysis was held on 6 September 2016, at the Ministry of Justice. The participants involved representatives from the courts, MoJ and MDTF JSS donors. The presentation involved a detailed review of all the contents of the analysis, i.e. Serbian normative framework on court fees and fee waivers, comparative review, identified obstacles in the functioning of the system of court fee waivers in Serbia, as well as the necessary preconditions for the reform of the system and key recommendations.

The participants supported the recommendations that were made in the context of the analysis, as well as the basic problems in the functioning of the existing systems which have been identified in the analysis. During the discussion, the participants shared some additional information relevant for the analysis:

In terms of the number of requests for exemption from payment of court fees, the judges stated that there is a significant increase in the trend of these requests, for example, one judge stated that almost every second party is interested in submitting such request; it was pointed out that requests for exemption from payment of court fees are most frequently submitted in labor disputes. Concurrently, most judges participating in the discussion stated that courts approve only about 10% of the requests for exemption from court fees; some judges believe that the motive of such actions could be the fact that the Ministry of Justice supervises the collection of court fees in the courts.
The participants also supported the findings from the analysis related to absence of identification of the relevant body authorized to issue financial status certificates. They pointed out that the fact that the parties have to collect a large amount of evidence on financial status from various bodies represents major obstacle, and often a key reason to give up from applying for exemption from payment of court fees; at the same time, most of these certificates must be paid, which creates additional costs to indigent citizens.
Participants noted that another major problem is the fact that courts do not have accurate data on the request for exemption from payment of court fees, given that there is no unified database. This issue is also related to the lack of precise data regarding the use of collected fees for the improvement of the material position of court staff.
Participants supported the recommendations relating to the abolition of the maximum amount of court fees in order to enable broader exemption from payment of court fees for indigent citizens and vulnerable groups.

Following the presentation, the participants were informed that the Analysis of court fee waiver system in Serbia will be available at the MDTF JSS website.

The Analysis of court fee waiver system in Serbia in English is available here and Serbian version is available here.