A costs order in administrative proceedings is the contribution towards the cost of legal assistance awarded to an interested party who succeeds. It is fixed-scale: not actual costs but an amount produced by a points system.
Legal basis
Article 8:75 of the General Administrative Law Act empowers the court to order a party to pay costs; Article 7:15(2) governs costs at the objection stage, which are awarded only where the decision is withdrawn because of an unlawfulness attributable to the body and the interested party asked for costs during the objection procedure. The Administrative Costs Decree sets the amount: points are awarded per procedural step, multiplied by a rate and by a weighting factor for the importance of the case. Filing an objection, filing an appeal and attending a hearing each attract one point. Only costs of professionally provided legal assistance qualify, alongside expert costs and loss of earnings.
How it works in practice
The request must be made expressly and, at the objection stage, before the decision on the objection is taken. Forget that and the award is lost for good. Related cases are treated as one, which reduces the award. Court fees are always refunded where the appeal succeeds.
Where it goes wrong
No request is made at the objection stage, so that nothing is awarded even in a case won outright. A second point is the expectation that actual legal fees will be reimbursed; that happens only exceptionally, where the body litigated against better judgment. Third, expert costs and loss of earnings are not specified.
Related terms
The costs order belongs with the notice of objection and the appeal, and connects to the administrative loop.
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