Different stakeholders in the judicial sector have welcomed the government’s decision to reduce court fees, a move that is likely to help more people take their cases to courts instead of giving up on their push to claim back their rights.
Court fees have been slashed between 40 to 60 percent through a new Ministerial Order N° 133/MOJ/AG/18 on court fees in civil, commercial, social and administrative matters, which was published in the Official Gazette on Monday.
Fees for filing a case to a Primary Court is now Rwf10,000 instead of 25,000, Intermediate Court which would charge Rwf 50,000 will now take 20,000, while High Court and Commercial High court that used to charge Rwf75,000 will now take 40,000 and the newly set up Court of Appeal will take Rwf50,000.
At the Supreme Court, where a litigant was required to pay Rwf100,000, the cases will be filed at no cost.
The Government moved to review the charges downwards after several surveys indicated that the amount of court fees, although a successful litigant would recover it from the losing one, was still a barrier to equitable access to justice in some cases.
According to Justice Minister, Johnston Busingye, several surveys indicated that the amount of court fees, although a successful litigant recovered it from the losing one, was still, in some cases an impediment to equitable access to justice.
"So Government moved to review the amounts downwards,” said Busingye, who is also the Attorney General.
Speaking to The New Times, Deputy Ombudsman in charge of prevention and fighting injustice, Odette Yankulije said that the changes mean that less people will now complain that they couldn’t claim for their rights in courts because of high court fees.
"Some people would sometimes say that they don’t have enough means to pay court fees and these changes will help more people to afford the fees so they can claim for their rights in courts,” she said.
Yankulije said that when the government raised court fees in 2014 it looked like a big problem for many people but now it’s good that the fees have been reduced.
"Some people might still complain but generally speaking the new court fees are affordable,” she said.
Théogène Twiringiyimana, a Senior Legal Officer at Legal Aid Forum, a local non-profit that provides legal aid services, agrees that previous court fees were exorbitant.
"It was a big issue given ordinary people’s financial means. Some people wouldn’t get justice because they simply couldn’t afford court fees. Some people would not afford to pay Rwf25000 to send their case to court in case they aren’t satisfied with mediators’ decisions,” he said in an interview.
Twiringiyimana said that the changes will create an impact for access to justice because some people who would just give up on their cases will now be able to push them.
"Court fees were high but Rwf10,000 is relatively affordable for the ordinary people who seriously want to take their cases to court,” he said.
The new law has scrapped Rwf 100,000 that would be paid to take a case to the Supreme Court and no court fees will be charged at the Supreme Court level.
The idea behind scrapping the fees is because the cases which will be determined by the Supreme Court are reviews on injustice, constitutional interpretation, authentic interpretation of laws and public interest cases.
Under the new law, persons exempted from paying court fees still include indigents with relevant documentation to that effect, the Government of Rwanda except its corporations with legal personality, children represented by indigent persons, and representatives of children who file complaints for the payment of damages in criminal cases related to child defilement.