Recovery of costs in Romanian civil proceedings
The short answer is that the losing party pays, but the winning party is not made whole.
A company that succeeds in Romanian proceedings recovers the court fee in full. It recovers the cost of experts, witnesses and translations. It recovers its legal fees only to the extent the court considers them proportionate, and the court may reduce them without either party asking. The practical result is that a successful claimant usually absorbs part of its own legal spend, and the amount it absorbs is not known until judgment.
For budgeting purposes the safe assumption is that the court fee comes back and that a material part of counsel fees does not. This note explains what sits behind that assumption, so that the figure in the provision can be defended internally.
- The court fee is recovered in full on success and cannot be reduced by the court.
- Counsel fees are recovered only so far as the court considers them proportionate, and the court may reduce them of its own motion.
- A success fee is unlikely to be recovered. The High Court declined to settle the point in April 2026.
- Costs must be claimed and proved before the debates on the merits are closed.
- An appeal carries a court fee of fifty per cent of the first instance fee, and the costs award is reversed if the appeal succeeds.
What the winning party gets back
The recoverable heads are the court fee, the fees of counsel, the fees of court appointed experts, sums due to witnesses, travel and accommodation where necessary, and any other expenditure necessary for the proper conduct of the proceedings. Translation of documents into Romanian falls into the last category, which matters more than it sounds for a foreign party, because translating a contractual and correspondence file is a real cost and should be claimed as a separate head rather than absorbed into the fee.
Two of these cannot be touched by the court. The court fee and the sums due to witnesses are recovered as paid. On a high value claim the court fee is frequently the largest single item, and recovering it in full changes the arithmetic of the whole exercise. The fee payable on a given claim value can be calculated using the court fee calculator on our litigation page.
Why legal fees are the uncertain part
Romanian courts have the power to reduce the part of the costs representing counsel fees where those fees are manifestly disproportionate to the value or complexity of the case, or to the work actually carried out. The power exists under Article 451(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure and the court may exercise it of its own motion, without an application from the losing party.
The reduction affects only what the losing party pays. The client remains liable to its lawyer for the full agreed fee. A company that instructs counsel at international rates and succeeds may find that the court awards it a figure calibrated to the Romanian market and that the difference stays with the client.
Parliament tried to narrow this power in 2024. The amending legislation would have removed the power to reduce of the court's own motion and introduced a presumption that the fee agreed between lawyer and client is proportionate. The Constitutional Court struck down that part of the law on 1 July 2025, unanimously, on grounds including legal certainty and equality before the law. The position is therefore unchanged and the discretion remains.
Courts of appeal have described reduction as an exceptional measure that requires specific reasoning. First instance practice is less consistent. A fee that is substantially above local market levels should be expected to attract scrutiny.
Success fees
A success fee is lawful in Romania as a supplement to a fixed fee. Whether the losing party can be made to pay it is unsettled, and recent developments have not settled it.
Some courts treat it as a voluntary arrangement between the winning party and its lawyer, which the opponent never agreed to and should not have to fund. Others treat it as a lawyer's fee like any other, subject to the same proportionality control.
A foreign company agreeing a success fee with Romanian counsel should treat it as a cost it will bear itself, and should not count it in the recovery assessment.
Three mistakes that cost money
Not sending a demand before issuing proceedings. A defendant who admits the claim at the first hearing cannot be ordered to pay costs, unless it was put in default beforehand. A creditor who goes straight to court against a debtor who then capitulates wins the claim and pays its own costs. A formal demand sent before proceedings removes the risk entirely. The sequence is set out in our guide to debt recovery in Romania for foreign creditors.
Overstating the claim. Where the claim succeeds only in part, costs are apportioned accordingly, and the claimant may be ordered to bear part of the defendant's costs on the portion that failed. The court fee is also ad valorem and paid in full on filing, so inflating the claim costs money twice. Penalty calculations are where claims most often become overstated, a question considered in our note on penalty clauses in Romanian contracts.
Failing to prove the costs in time. Costs must be claimed and proved before the debates on the merits are closed. Invoices and proof of payment must be on the file before the court retires. The High Court relaxed this in 2024 to the extent that proof of payment may be produced on appeal where costs were claimed at first instance but the payment evidence was missing. The relaxation covers the evidence, not the claim. Costs never asked for are never awarded.
Appeals
An appeal carries a court fee of fifty per cent of the first instance fee, calculated on the amount in dispute on appeal. Costs follow the outcome at each level, so a costs award obtained at first instance is reversed together with the judgment if the appeal succeeds.
Roughly one appeal in four is allowed in commercial matters, which means three first instance judgments in four become final. The costs award should nonetheless be treated as provisional until the appeal period has run.
What this means for the decision to litigate
Costs recovery in Romania is partial, and it is conditional twice over. It depends on winning, and it depends on enforcing. A costs order against a company with no assets is worth nothing, and the court fee paid on filing is lost with it.
This is why the solvency of the opponent belongs at the start of the analysis rather than at the end. Our notes on how to check a Romanian company and on whether it is worth suing a Romanian debtor deal with that assessment.
Where the dispute has not yet arisen, the forum can be chosen with the costs regime in mind, a question examined in our note on governing law and jurisdiction clauses in Romanian contracts.
How we advise
We set out the costs exposure of a dispute before proceedings begin, as a figure that can be provisioned rather than as a range, covering the court fee payable on filing, the expected recoverable proportion and the appeal provision. Our practice in corporate litigation in Romania covers the assessment of claims and prospects, representation throughout the proceedings and the enforcement of judgments.
Where proceedings have already been served, the deadlines are short and they run from service. The position is set out in our guide for foreign companies sued in Romania.
This note states the position in Romanian law as at October 2026 and is provided for information. It does not constitute legal advice.
Alin-George Mihai is Managing Partner at Mihai Attorneys in Bucharest. He advises domestic and international clients on corporate transactions, commercial agreements and dispute resolution, and represents foreign companies and their Romanian subsidiaries before the Romanian courts and in arbitration. He holds a law degree from the Faculty of Law, University of Bucharest.
