High Trial Fees for Retrials of Payment Orders Should Not Be Charged

Following the amendment adding Article 4-4 of the Enforcement Act of the Code of Civil Procedure, victims of payment orders may file for a retrial within two years from July 3, 2015. However, under the current method by which courts collection trial fees for retrials, victims of payment orders may find themselves trapped in a dilemma where the retrial system is "visible yet out of reach"!

For example: A debtor who does not owe a debt of NT$1,000,000 nonetheless has their real estate seized by someone who utilized a payment order to obtain an executive title. If they now file for a retrial against a finalized payment order, they must first pay: (1) Trial fees: NT$10,900 (collected on a proportional basis); (2) If they wish to stay compulsory enforcement, current practical practices likely require posting a security bond of approximately NT$330,000 (one-third of the subject matter amount of the litigation) or approximately NT$216,000 (calculated based on the default interest over the 4-year and 4-month processing time limit for a three-tier, three-instance court system).

Originally, when Paragraph 2 of Article 521 of the Code of Civil Procedure was amended on February 7, 2003, judicial practice had not yet formed a consensus on how trial fees should be collected and calculated when a debtor filed for a retrial against a payment order. Consequently, on November 25, 2004, the Taiwan High Court and its subordinate courts held a legal symposium and reached a resolution stating that when filing for a retrial pursuant to Paragraph 2 of Article 521, trial fees should be levied against the retrial plaintiff (debtor) based on the standard of litigation cases and according to the value of the subject matter of the litigation. This caused many victims of payment orders to have their retrial applications dismissed by the courts because they could not afford the exorbitant trial fees.

In fact, Paragraph 2 of Article 77-17 of the Code of Civil Procedure was concurrently amended in February 2003 to provide: "For applications for a retrial against a finalized ruling, a trial fee of NT$1,000 shall be collected." If a retrial is filed against a finalized payment order, the aforementioned provision should apply and a trial fee of only NT$1,000 should be collected. However, current courts use legal symposiums to impose restrictions not provided for by law, collecting trial fees from debtors filing for a payment order retrial based on the amount stated in the payment order. This unduly raises the threshold for seeking a retrial, adding insult to injury for victims of payment orders. This method of collecting trial fees has remained unchanged both before and after the legal amendments. Citizens intending to use the new law to file for a payment order retrial should take note and carefully evaluate the financial costs they will incur by filing for a retrial.

The problem must be resolved by the one who created it. Before returning to the application of Paragraph 2 of Article 77-17 of the Code of Civil Procedure, local Legal Aid Foundations can first lower their assistance standards for payment order victims, and the Judicial Yuan must also have the determination to implement the policies of the new law! Since Paragraph 2 of Article 521 of the Code of Civil Procedure has been deleted, the courts should immediately convene a legal symposium, cease applying the views from the 2004 symposium, and directly issue a new resolution on how trial fees should be collected for retrials filed after the promulgation and implementation of the new law. They should straightforwardly apply the current Paragraph 2 of Article 77-17 of the Code of Civil Procedure and order the retrial plaintiff (debtor) to pay a trial fee of NT$1,000. This will prevent victims of payment orders from falling into the predicament of being unable to seek legal relief due to an inability to raise retrial trial fees, thereby fulfilling the benevolent legislative intent of the new law in broadening the grounds for retrials.