Compensation for Actual Loss of Time: Some Issues of Law Enforcement Practice

Abstract

Abuse of procedural rights is a widespread phenomenon that has a negative impact on the judicial system as a whole. It causes unfounded appeals to the court contrary to their purpose and creates obstacles in the exercise of the right to judicial protection, works against the correct and timely consideration and resolution of cases, creates a disdainful attitude towards law and court. According to the legislator, the main mechanism for countering procedural abuses in civil proceedings is the potential institution of compensation for actual loss of time, which has a long history of development. However, its fragmented and laconic legal regulation, different interpretations and lack of unity of judicial practice have turned compensation for actual loss of time into a rarely used and ineffective — almost never with a positive result — way of imposing negative consequences on persons involved in the case and who commit procedural abuses. The paper analyzes the features of the legal regulation of compensation for actual loss of time and the corresponding judicial practice and examines the above problems, the reasons why they occur and suggests ways to resolve them.