MIŠIĆ v. SERBIA

Published on 30 March 2026   THIRD SECTION Application no. 12239/23 Slavica MIŠIĆ against Serbia lodged on 10 March 2023 communicated on 9 March 2026 SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE The application concerns a situation in which the Constitutional Court awarded the applicant 1,500 euros in compensation for the excessive length of civil proceedings concerning damages, but did not accept her request for reimbursement of the legal costs incurred for the drafting of her constitutional appeal. In so adjudicating, the Constitutional Court referred to Article 6 of the Constitutional Court Act, which provides that, unless the court decides otherwise, each participant in the proceedings before it bears his or her own costs. The applicant’s actual costs incurred for her lawyer’s drafting of the constitutional appeal amounted to approximately 320 euros in all. The applicant complains, in substance and under Article 6 of the Convention, that the Constitutional Court’s refusal to award her the costs of her legal representation amounted to a breach of her right of access to a court. QUESTION TO THE PARTIES Was the Constitutional Court’s refusal to award the applicant the costs of her legal representation before that court in breach of her right of access to a court under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (see, mutatis mutandis, for example, Moskalj v. Croatia, no. 60272/21, §§ 79-94, 15 October 2024, and Dragan Kovačević v. Croatia, no. 49281/15, §§ 67-85, 12 May 2022)?