Attorney-at-law Annika Vait´s article in legal blog: reimbursement of legal aid costs in labour disputes

Law Firm ALTERNA’s partner and attorney-at-law Annika Vait wrote an article in legal blog about reimbursement of legal aid costs in labour disputes.

Annika explained, that individual labour disputes between employees and employers are settled according to Individual Labour Dispute Resolution Act (ILDRA). According to aforenamed act, in case of defending your rights, it is possible to choose, whether to turn to the labour dispute committee or to the court. Exceptions are only financial pretentions that exceed EUR 10,000 – that large financial pretentions could be filed only to the court.

ILDRA does not stipulate the possibility to demand that opposite party would compensate your legal aid costs paid in the labour dispute committee´s procedure.

What is often unknown, is the circumstance, that if aforenamed dispute continues in court (it means if the judgment of the labour dispute committee is appealed to the court even partially), it makes possible to claim legal aid costs paid in the labour dispute committee along with the costs paid in the court.

Estonian Supreme Court has clearly expressed this opinion in it´s recent judgement no 3- 2- 1- 80-15. Supreme Court has marked, that according to the Code of Civil Procedure § 144 clause 4, it is possible to reimburse legal aid costs paid during the process of filing the claim to the labour dispute committee along with the costs of proceedings in the court. According to the referred provision, for implementation of this possibility, it is necessary that the claim will be filed to the court no later than 6 months after the end of the proceedings in the labour dispute committee. Therefore, if the claim is filed later, it would no longer be possible to claim reimbursement of legal aid costs paid in the labour dispute committee.

The blog’s post is available here: http://addenda.ee/vandeadvokaat-annika-vait-riigikohus-kohtumenetluses-saab-lisaks-kohtumenetluses-kantavatele-oigusabikuludele-taotleda-ka-eelnevalt-toovaidluskomisjonis-kantud-oigusabikulude-hvitamist–

For further information, please contact Annika by e-mail annika@alternalaw.ee or by phone +372 680 6850.

Law Firm ALTERNA