Criteria for the admissibility of a reduction by the court of the costs of paying for the services of a representative of the victim: the applicability of a cross-sectoral approach

Common to all types of domestic legal proceedings is the presence of such a variety of procedural costs as the cost of paying for the services of a representative of the injured party. At the same time, the amount of legislative regulation of these costs varies depending on the type of process: in contrast to the civil procedural and arbitration legislation, the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation does not contain provisions that give the court the right to reduce these amounts. At the same time, only an indirect argument in favor of the court having such an opportunity are the explanations of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, according to which procedural costs include the expenses of the victim for the participation of a representative, confirmed by relevant documents, provided they are necessary and justified. The existence at the level of interpretation of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of criteria for the necessity and justification of expenses for paying for the services of a representative of the victim in the absence of a specific legislative position on the issue of whether the court has the right to reduce them generally leads to legal uncertainty and is extremely dangerous for the purposes of protecting the rights of both victims and the accused. The article provides an analysis of judicial practice on the issue of reimbursement of expenses for the representative of the victim, existing doctrinal positions, on the basis of which proposals are formulated to change the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and supplement the provisions of paragraph 2 of the Decree of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December 19, 2013 no. 42 “On the practice of application by courts of legislation on procedural costs in criminal cases.