New Fee Rates for Court Applicants to be Established; Discussion on New Bill in Parliament

The National Assembly of Armenia discussed today a package of amendments to the Law on State Duties, which proposes to establish new fee rates for court applicants. The proposed amendments were presented in parliament by Vahe Danielyan, the Deputy Minister of Justice.

The deputy minister stated that some types of fees have been set in Armenia since 1999 and have not been changed until now. "Now it is established that in the first instance the limit is set to up to 25 million, in the cassation case - up to 15 million, and in the appeal case - up to 10 million," said the deputy minister.

According to him, for bankruptcy proceedings, the fee will increase from 500,000 to 1 million and 500,000 drams. For ordinary citizens' cases, such as alimony payment obligations, applications to the court for domestic violence cases, and lawsuits from companies participating in election monitoring, the fee will be eliminated.

"Additionally, an important provision is foreseen that the court can exempt a person from paying the state duty if their social and property situation does not suffice," said Danielyan.

MP Ani Samsonyan from the Prosperous Armenia faction, while supporting the new fee rates, expressed concern that in the current conditions of the absence of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, citizens could be deprived of their right to judicial justice. "And here, a problem of rights protection will arise," said Samsonyan.

It should be noted that if the package of drafts on new fee rates is adopted, it will come into force the day after its official publication.