Legal basis: Article 1022 Judicial Code and Royal Decree

The main legal texts governing the RPV are:

1. Article 1022 of the Judicial Code: Basic principles of the RPV.
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2. Royal Decree of 26 October 2007, as amended by the Royal Decree of 16 May 2024 (Belgian Official Journal, 5 June 2024): specifies the exact amounts and rules for the RPV.
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These legal texts can be viewed on the official Belgian legislation website.

Article 1022 of the Judicial Code provides, among other things, that the RPV is owed by operation of law to the prevailing party, as a lump-sum contribution toward its attorney costs. The article also lists the criteria that the judge must weigh when deciding whether to deviate from the base amount (see section 2). Importantly, the judge cannot refuse the RPV entirely unless the law expressly so provides, unlike the former situation where the judge had full discretion.

The rates in the Royal Decree are not identical for all proceedings. The general rate applies to most courts (justices of the peace, police courts, courts of first instance, enterprise courts, courts of appeal, etc.), and also to the labour courts in, for example, employment-contract disputes. For proceedings under Articles 579 and 1017(2) of the Judicial Code (such as occupational accidents, occupational diseases and social security), separate, lower amounts apply before the president of the labour court, the labour court and the labour court of appeal.