Belgium - Recovery Of Fees And Expenses

In a recent decision* the Belgian Supreme Court has allowed a winning party in a civil contractual dispute to recover both legal and technical expert fees and expenses. This goes against jurisprudence previously well established for the past 50 years.

Although the full implications of the decision have yet to be established and the scope of the ruling still to be determined, certain principles have emerged:

• The Court has insisted that the fees be "necessary" to establish the case.

• Fees will be rejected if they cannot be shown to have contributed decisively to the party establishing its claim

• The ruling applies only to contractual disputes and only when breach/fault can be attributed to one of the parties

Issues still to be determined include:

• The level of fees/costs which will be deemed to be acceptable

• Whether a scale or tariff might be introduced

• Whether regulations will be required to govern this new area of recoverable expenses

 With thanks to CAETHOVEN n.v. for providing this information.

*Cour De Cassation de Belgique, 2 September 2004,  ref: C.01.0186.F/1