The General Assembly of Judges of I and II Division of the Supreme Administrative Court (GAJ of SAC) adopted interpretative decision No. 1/15.03.2017 under commercial case 2/2016 of the SAC on the reimbursement of paid legal fees in criminal administrative proceedings on appeal of penal deeds (PDs). The interpretative case was initiated after the Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov’s request upon the contradictory jurisprudence on whether lawyers’ fees, paid by parties affected by PDs should be reimbursed by the state, if the penal deed is repealed as unlawful. The decision was inspired by several successful cases from the last 1-2 years against the state (including one of them won by DGKV) that made the breakthrough in the otherwise impenetrable practice of SAC.

With regard to these issues, GAJ of SAC adopted the following:

The state shall reimburse expenses for legal fees that previously were covered by citizens and companies in cases for repealing of unlawfully imposed through PDs fines and other penalties. These expenses shall now be considered for pecuniary damage, which are a direct and immediate consequence of improprer penatlies within the meaning of Art. 4 of the Act on the Liability for Damage Incurred by the State and the Municipalities (ALDISM). In the event that the contested PD is revoked as unlawful by a final judgment the paid legal fees in the case are subject to compensation by the state in the face of the respective administrative authority under the ALDISM.In order the state to pay them, it should be proven that the penalties were unlawfully imposed, and the aggrieved party to bring a separate claim under the ALDISM. So far, the procedure has been the same, but now the result of it is clear.