The law of court costs is a controversial and still-developing subject in any jurisdiction. It defines the allocation of parties’ disbursements of handling a case, for instance, money paid to an attorney (attorney’s fees). Court costs may be very high; in fact they can sometimes exceed the sum of money awarded to the winning party in the main proceedings. They may, therefore, be subject to abuses: for example, where a successful party in a case intentionally overprices court costs for its benefit. The amount of court costs that a losing party should pay is determined by the court. The assessment of the sum of court costs is based on criteria established under particular legislation and case law. However, the general rule of assessment is the principle of reasonableness: court costs should be reasonable in amount. The Russian law of court costs in commercial litigation has recently undergone some major changes that we would like to examine.
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