Abstract

In principle, seeking protection before civil court involves the need to participate in court costs. Unfortunately, these costs may become a barrier which hinders or prevents the poorest people from exercising their right to trial. It does not concern only the costs of starting the proceedings, but also the costs which arise thereafter. An absolute requirement to cover legal costs could, in fact, result in depriving the poorest segment of the population of legal protection in civil matters only because they have no financial resources to cover the costs of the proceedings. In order to prevent this the legislator, among other things, provided for the institution of total exemption from court fees upon request. The judicial practice shows that this mechanism has been used more restrictively in recent years.