The modern world often confronts us with situations where legal conflicts become an integral part of life. Disputes over property, labor relations, family matters or business deals – all of these can turn into a legal confrontation. And although everyone tries to avoid conflicts, reality dictates its own rules. In such cases, a person faces an important and difficult decision: go to court or try to find an alternative way to solve the problem.
The lawyers of Repeshko & Partners Bar Association help assess the situation and share their recommendations to help you make an informed decision and achieve justice.
In the life of every person, there may come a moment when a serious conflict arises, which cannot be resolved peacefully. In such situations, the question arises: go to court or try to solve the problem in another way? The decision to file a lawsuit requires careful weighing of all pros and cons, as the process can be long, costly, and psychologically exhausting. At the same time, refusing to defend one’s rights in court can lead to loss of property, violation of interests, or even serious reputational consequences.
Our practice shows that many citizens consider the court to be the last resort when other ways of resolving the dispute have been exhausted. Sometimes this is a reasonable approach, as there are many alternatives: mediation, negotiation, arbitration or other out-of-court mechanisms.
Data for 2024 have not yet been processed, but in 2023, according to the State Judicial Administration, 3,157,293 cases were considered in the courts of Ukraine. The top three leaders in terms of volume of cases are civil cases, administrative cases, and closing the top three are cases of administrative offenses. As the statistics of cases show, there are one and a half times more cases than in 2022, but we should not forget that the beginning of 2022 was the time of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, so for a while, if not the whole country, then half of it was definitely not ready for lawsuits.
In general, lawyers informally divide cases into the following categories:
- For which you must go to court. This category of cases is further divided into undisputed cases and cases in which there is a dispute.
- Which makes no sense to judge.
- For which you can try to go to court.
Among the civil cases, the cases related to debt collection for communal services and divorce are the leading ones. There is a logical explanation for this, because if a spouse has a minor child (children), or if there are no minor children, but the second spouse does not want a divorce, or it is currently impossible to establish his whereabouts, then there is no other way to divorce than through the court. This category of cases is undisputed, but after several hearings (depending on the position and attendance of the second spouse), the couple will still be separated.
Regarding cases for debts from communal services, this is a regularity for those citizens who do not pay for communal services on time. Usually, such cases are considered almost automatically, on the basis of calculations provided by communal services, but in case of disagreement for some reason (actual absence of debt or other amount), the case can be reconsidered at the request of the debtor. These categories of cases have been undisputed hits in courts for many years in a row.
With regard to these cases, there are no special questions and options whether to sue or not. These cases are not so terrible.
The final result will depend on which category the case falls into, that is, whether a decision will be made in favor of the person who filed the lawsuit or application to the court. This division is quite conditional, but, for example, the same divorce case can be classified as undisputed, because the couple will still get a divorce. In general, it is possible to find out how undisputed this or that case will be only after carefully examining all the circumstances. For example: if in the case of establishing an additional deadline for accepting the inheritance, all or part of the heirs missed the deadline for accepting the inheritance, then if those heirs who accepted the inheritance or all of them do not deny that the reasons for the omission were all valid and recognize the claim, then such a case is in fact indisputable. If one of the heirs denies that the others missed the deadline for valid reasons, then such a case becomes very controversial.
But the main thing to remember is that any legal dispute costs money. If the funds are not of significant importance, then you can sue. In our practice, there was a client who wanted to sue her neighbors. It was about whether or not it is necessary to move the fence in the yard, taking into account some features (cesspool, gate, entrance to the yard, etc.). Having carefully studied all the circumstances, the lawyer’s verdict was that it was not worth going to court, because there was practically no chance of winning the case, and the preparation of documents for the court and the conduct of the case entailed certain costs. To my surprise, the client decided to go to court without fail, because her neighbors had seriously beaten her, and she issued the following sentence about the costs: “I’m crying, but the neighbors will also have to pay lawyers and go to court. So it’s worth it.” Such examples do exist, but they are still not widespread enough.
Returning to costs, the first thing to note is the court fee. Court fee – a fee charged throughout the territory of Ukraine for submitting applications, complaints to the court, for issuing documents by the courts, as well as in the case of the adoption of separate court decisions provided for by law. The amount changes almost every year, but this year the same rates apply as in 2024. Divorce – UAH 1211.20, non-property claims – UAH 1211.20, property claims – 1% of the claim amount, but not less than UAH 1,211.20, a statement to establish the fact – UAH 605.60.
Note that each claim is paid separately, and each claimant pays separately for his claim, if several claimants are named in the claim. So, if the notary issued a decision on the refusal to perform a notarial act due to the fact that family ties were not proven during the inheritance according to the law, and it is also impossible to determine the amount of inherited property, because the apartment was privatized to three owners, including h and the deceased without determining the shares, then the court fee and claims will look as follows:
- to establish the fact of family relations – UAH 605.60;
- establish that each co-owner in the apartment owns 1/3 part – UAH 1,211.20;
- to recognize ownership of 1/3 part in the order of inheritance – UAH 1,211.20;
- to terminate the right of joint co-ownership of an apartment in connection with the determination of shares – UAH 1,211.20.
Therefore, the court fee is paid at the expense of the state and neither the lawyer nor the judge has anything to do with it.
The following costs in cases related to real estate, namely houses, apartments, non-residential premises, are the technical passport. By law, the technical passport is valid for one year. However, how to apply to court with a technical passport that is one and a half years old, then there will be no problems either, as nothing in the composition of the property has changed in those one and a half years. An older technical passport must be processed by a licensed technician, and the cost of this pleasure starts somewhere from four thousand hryvnias and ultimately depends on the size of the inventory of my property and its location. Together with the Technical Passport, the customer is issued an extract from the register of construction activities and a certificate on whether there are spontaneous reconstructions or redevelopments in the immovable property. Equipment must be allowed into the property for measurements, and some must also be brought and taken away.
Another expense related to real estate is a certificate from the Technical Inventory Bureau (BTI). Since ownership of the property was acquired before 2003 and there is no information in the real estate register, the presence of a BTI certificate is mandatory. Even if information is available in the electronic register, sometimes it is still necessary to obtain an additional BTI certificate to clarify the address, ownership shares, etc. BTI help is also not free. Currently, each local community has its own BTI and sets prices for receiving information. In one community, it can be UAH 500, in another, UAH 900, and somewhere even more than a thousand.
In addition, you need to come to BTI at least twice – to submit a request for information, to receive details for payment for an answer, and the second time to receive a certificate directly. If, for example, p. Vyazov belongs to the Solonytsivka OTG of the Kharkiv district of the Kharkiv region, so you need to go to the village of Solonitsivka for a certificate.
Some other documents that must be collected in the case are also not free of charge – a certificate from the archive, copies of documents from the state geocadaster, information from the state register of property rights to immovable property, geodetic survey, and others. Even if the service itself is worth a lot of money, someone needs to visit the same state archive twice during working hours – either the plaintiff himself or his representative for a separate fee.
The next item of expense is small, but mandatory for any title claim. This is an assessment of the value of the property for the payment of the court fee. The evaluation is carried out by a qualified appraiser and its cost is also different – UAH 800, UAH 1500, UAH 2500, etc. The amount depends on the property being appraised and the appraiser’s office maintenance costs.
The next expenses are legal services. It should be noted here that if a citizen has the effort and the appropriate level of knowledge to prepare the required package of documents on his own and to draw up a statement or a statement of claim on his own, then the law does not prohibit this. It must be remembered that the chance of its success depends on the quality of the preparation of the documents for the case.
As for those who decided to turn to a lawyer, the services start from several thousand hryvnias and depend on what package of services will be paid. For example, in the case of declaring a person dead, it is necessary to collect many certificates from the following institutions: Ukrposhta, border service, territorial community, local hospital, pension fund, police department, RATS and others. A lawyer must send a request to each organization or take it personally. All this must be done before a statement is made to the court. Of course, the preparation of such a case cannot cost, not two, not three thousand hryvnias, because only the post office will take at least three hundred hryvnias for such a list for the forwarding of attorney requests. However, an application for the issuance of an order for the collection of alimony may well cost the same two thousand hryvnias, because it does not require additional time.
Participation in the lawyer’s case itself is a separate expense item. There are many payment options here:
- the amount of the fee in full and final;
- the amount of the fee for handling the case for a year, if more – then additional payment in the agreed amount (there are cases that are considered by the courts for five years);
- the amount of the fee for each court session, but at the same time a certain amount is paid for the so-called office work (drafting of reviews, statements, requests, etc.);
- the hourly amount of the fee, which will also include the time spent on the way to the court and back;
- other options by agreement (there is an example when a lawyer defending the interests of a forest farm received saplings of trees and bushes as a fee).
As you can see, options for working with lawyers are quite diverse and flexible. Of course, understanding everything, sometimes lawyers do not require payment of the entire amount of the fee immediately for the first two payment options, but everything must be discussed directly with the lawyer with whom you intend to work.
Another item of expenses is conducting a forensic examination. The thing is that for some categories of court cases, conducting an examination is mandatory, because special knowledge is needed to establish a particular circumstance. This is where the amount of payment for the examination depends on the number of questions that are set by the court decision for its resolution. Each such question is paid for separately. As an example, a genetic examination to establish paternity costs around ten thousand hryvnias, 27 thousand hryvnias were paid for an examination to determine the market value of a residential building in a small town. Construction and technical examinations can cost up to 40 thousand hryvnias, just as accounting examinations are not cheap. In general, we can say that on average a forensic examination costs 20 thousand hryvnias, but this is a very average figure.
You may ask: what about the rule of law that court costs are borne by the party guilty of litigation (the defendant)? Yes, the specified rule exists, but 100% of the costs will be borne by the defendant or defendants in the case of full satisfaction of the claims. If the claims are partially satisfied, then the compensation of all court costs will also be partial. But all the same, the plaintiff or plaintiffs, as there are several of them, must be paid for everything first, including for the forensic examination. If the defendant has separate questions for the expert during the appointment of the examination, then he must pay for them himself.
Regarding the general question of whether to sue? In most cases, we are inclined to the fact that if there is an opportunity not to go to court, but to solve the issue in another way, then there is no need to go to court. After all, in practice, there are not rare cases when a lawyer, getting into a case, hoped to win it quickly in two sessions, but got stuck in it for years and even lost. And this is not the lawyer’s fault – sometimes the client does not tell everything, sometimes the client himself does not have 100% of the information, or makes a mistake in good faith and does not have all the necessary documents on hand. However, the opposite cases are also known – starting a business with the attitude of “well, let’s try”, unexpectedly ending the business with a win at the finish line.
Therefore, each case should be approached thoughtfully and far-sightedly. It seems that filing a lawsuit is a simple matter. But what next? The real problem lies not in the application process itself, but in how this story will end. The main question is not whether a lawsuit can be filed, but whether it will bring the desired result.
