Claiming Court Costs as a Litigant-in-Person

Claiming Court Costs as

A Litigant-in-Person

by Dr Edgar Paltzer

A LITIGANT-IN-PERSON, OR SELF-REPRESENTING LITIGANT (SRL), IS AN INDIVIDUAL WHO CHOOSES TO REPRESENT THEMSELVES IN COURT RATHER THAN EMPLOYING THE SERVICES OF A SOLICITOR. The most common reason for choosing this route is to save expenses on legal fees. If the SRL is the victorious party in court, not all jurisdictions will allow the SRL to claim compensation from the losing party to cover their costs. This can be a substantial draw back for the SRL. In such jurisdictions as Switzerland the SRL would have to find a solicitor who is willing to submit legal briefs to the court drafted by the SRL to get compensation.

Costs That Can Be Claimed In cases where solicitor’s fees have been paid, the judge will usually command the losing party to pay those fees back to the successful party. However, 2

in cases of self-representation, the judge has entire discretion and may exceptionally look at the number of hours taken to prepare for the case and the costs incurred, such as travel to and from the court or the cost of procuring legal documents.

Limitations There are limitations to the amount of costs a litigant can ask the judge to order to be paid. If cases of self-representation and when a judge is inclined to grant costs, the litigant will be required to document the number of hours they have put into the case and, if the judge deems this a reasonable amount of time, they may order the other party to pay these hours at a pre-deter-

mined hourly rate (which will not be as much as a solicitor would charge by the hour). It is, therefore, important for the SRL to keep a detailed timesheet and expense ledger.

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You can learn more about legal coaching for self-representing litigants by visiting the blog of Dr Edgar Paltzer.