Increased Court Fees Face Sharp Criticism from Lawyers
"Access to justice is being massively hindered," said the President of the Austrian Bar Association (ÖRAK), Armenak Utudjian, to the APA. At the same time, the resource allocation of the judiciary is apparently still inadequate. If fees are to be increased, the proceeds should be used for the judiciary and not to fill budget gaps.
Effective immediately, fixed fee rates such as flat fees in civil court proceedings up to an assessment basis of 350,000 euros, fees for consensual divorces, registration and submission fees in commercial register matters, fees for land register extracts or for commercial register inquiries will increase by an average of 23 percent.
Last Increase Suspended
The reason for the sharp increase is, on the one hand, a legal automatic mechanism that obliges the Minister of Justice to make an increase when a valorization threshold of five percent is exceeded. In addition, the National Council has twice suspended the increase, which is why the increase is now correspondingly higher. For this year, a suspension was not decided - unlike the rent increase, as Utudjian noted.
Austria is already a leader in the coverage rate of court fees, argued the President of the Lawyers. According to a Council of Europe study, 117 percent of court operations are financed with the fees - this percentage would now increase further. "We consider this to be highly problematic."
Lawyers Criticize Increase in Court Fees
At the same time, the resource allocation of the judiciary is apparently still inadequate both in terms of personnel and organization, as shown by the recent signature campaign by the Judges' Association. In it, they demand, among other things, 200 additional positions due to overload. "We support this petition." If fees are to rise, it must be ensured that the funds generated also benefit the judicial system.
At the same time, Utudjian calls for a fundamental revision of the fee structure. Among other things, there is still no cap on higher amounts in dispute - "this then reaches exorbitant heights and ultimately harms the business location." Every person or company with a claim should have the opportunity to enforce it. Utudjian is also critical of the registration fees in the land register of 1.1 percent of the purchase price - here the state's service is in no relation to the amount to be paid. Finally, the automatic mechanism of the now effective fee increase should also be abolished.
(APA/Red)
This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.