Relevant fees when starting a court case in Bulgaria

When one person or legal entity decides to start a court case in Bulgaria, he or she is necessary to be familiar with the amount of the relevant fees.

First, it is important to be known that it is not possible the exact amount of all the fees which the petitioner should pay during the court process to be determined in advance. For example, if during the court process the judge requires additional documents to be presented or experts to be appointed for providing the court with an expert investigation, then these expenses could not be predicted in advance as the remuneration for the appointed experts is determining by the respective judge during the court case.

However, for initiation of the court case the initial expenses which should be paid are:

Fee for starting the court case amounting to 4 % from the entire amount of the claim.

In case if the petitioner requires burdening of the defendant’s assets there is additional fee determined by the judge. In case if the petitioner make several demands-alternative or cumulative claims, then there is 4 % fee for each separate claim.

If the petitioner is not Bulgarian person, then he or she should pay to a translation company for translating to Bulgarian language of all the documents, prepared in another language, different from Bulgarian. The Bulgarian court is accepting documents prepared only in Bulgarian language by a licensed translator.

During the court process there could be the fee for expert’s reports if the lawyer of the petitioner considered that requiring of expert’s report could be usefully for the legal protection of the petitioner. The fee for one expert’s report varies from 150-300 BGN depending on the complexity of the tasks. The fee for three expert’s report varies from 300 BGN and above. The exact amount of the fee for the expert’s repots is determining by the respective judge and could not be determined in advance.

As in Bulgaria the court cases includes three instances-1-st instance (Regional Court), second instance (Appellate instance) and Supreme Court, the decision of the first instance could be contested before the second instance and before the Supreme Court. The ruling of the Supreme Court is the last and binding decision. If the petitioner wins the case, then the fees should be returned by the loosing party.

"Valova and Angelova" law firm