Study On The Burden Of Attorney's Fees In Civil Public Interest Litigation

With the deepening of the process of the rule of law,the awakening of citizens'consciousness towards public rights and the clarifying of the rules of civil public interest litigation in the normative documents such as Environmental Protection Law and Judiciary Interpretation of Civil Litigation Law etc.,public interest societies have mushroomed and the civil public interest litigation has become a hot topic in the legal community.Because of the particularity of subject of civil public interest litigation and the frequent occurrence of related hot-spot cases,the issue of who pays for the plaintiff's attorney's fees has caused considerable disputes in the theoretical community.Since the civil public interest litigation is still in its initial stage in China,the relevant system is inevitably imperfect.Under this background,the ambiguity of the legal provisions on the attorney's fees for civil public interest litigation lawyers has led to different trial standards and different judgments for the same litigation request in court at different places and at different levels.Based on the original laws and related cases,the author re-sorts relevant normative documents and refers to representative cases.From the perspective of the special nature of the civil public interest litigation plaintiff,the author puts forward constructive opinions on the burden of agency fees of plaintiff lawyers in civil public interest litigation.The reason why the plaintiff does not bear the burden of attorney agency fees,the failure of the defendant to bear the attorney's agency fees,and the introduction to safeguard funds were used to demonstrate the rationality of the plaintiffs legal fees in the civil public interest litigation.When a civil public interest litigation plaintiff wins the case,the court should support the plaintiffs idea of transferring of the lawyer's agency fee to the defendant;when the plaintiff of the civil public interest litigation loses,the safeguard fund should make up for the plaintiff's attorney's fee,meanwhile,the court should also do its utmost to perform the duty of examination.The author also discusses the cases of winning,mediating,and reconciliation on the basis of respecting the wishes of the parties and applying the country's mandatory content.With the marketization of the attorney's fee system,it is of great importance to judge the rationality of the plaintiff's attorney's fees in civil public interest litigation.The author makes a reasonable judgment on the plaintiffs attorney's fees in civil public interest litigation from three perspectives i.e.legality standards,reasonableness standards,and necessity standards.Through rational design,factors that should be considered by the court in examining the civil public interest litigation plaintiff's attorney's agency fees would be clarified,which would further promote development of the healthy and ordered civil public interest litigation.