The rules of the Court District No. 2/2024

Article 1 General

The following rules apply to the determination of legal costs when a policy is endorsed in an out-of-home case after Article 113 of Act No. 91/1991. The aim is that the determination of legal costs, according to Article 4 of these rules, take into account the costs of the drafting of a policy in an issue. The cost of publishing a policy, parliamentary fees that go into the treasury for the issue, demonstrable interim collection costs or other costs of the kind are not taken into account. Those costs are therefore added to the amount determined according to Article 4. These rules take into account Chapter XXI of Act No. 91/1991, Chapter IV of the Law of Law no. 77/1998 and the Recovery Act no. 95/2008.

Article 2 Baseline

When a policy is endorsed in an out-of-court case, the basis for determining the costs of the case is based on considerations of the work behind the policy’s creation. However, in exceptional cases other considerations may be considered, such as in the case of expert advice. When determining the costs of the case, it may be considered if there are many same-sex cases between the same parties, all of whom are represented in the same session of parliament. It may also be considered if an out-of-court case has been brought by the plaintiff in a case that has previously been postponed repeatedly at the claim of the plaintiff.

Article 3 The effect of failing to send a collection alert

Currently, a notice of collection according to Article 7 of Act No. 95/2008 has not been sent to the debtor before the case is brought and a contract is not forthcoming where that provision is deviated and the legal costs shall in general be determined in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation No. 37/2009 on the maximum amount of collection costs etc. If many cases are being brought between the same parties, this shall be taken into account when determining the legal costs.

Article 4 Individual amounts of legal costs

Legal costs shall normally be determined within the following categories of reference. The amount is based on a person not engaged in VAT-related activities:

• a. Simple collection cases 68,000 – 136,000 ISK This category generally includes claims under a bond, bill of exchange, cheque, bill of lading or statement of account.

• b. More substantial collection cases 136,000 - 204,000 ISK The aim is to cover more substantial issues than cases under the a-digit rule.

• c. Major cases with extensive data collection 204,000 – 340.000 ISK It is assumed that there are cases where extensive data collection has been conducted and the issues are complex.

If the cases are even larger in size in terms of issues and interests, the legal costs may be higher than the above, although the maximum amount may be ISK 680,000.

Article 5 Review

Regrets that these seats are subject to a review of the thresholds when the Court of Justice considers this necessary in light of price developments.

Article 6 Authorisation and entry into force

These rules are established by the authority in Article 8, 6 to 1, of the Law no. 50/2016 on the Courts of Justice and are for guidance. They will enter into force on January 1, 2024 and at the same time the rules no. 1/2021 will expire.

Thus, it was approved by the Administrative Board of the Court of Justice on 21 December 2023. Sigurður Tómas Magnússon Chairman of the Administrative Board of the Court of Justice.