The procedure and limits of reimbursement of the amounts paid for professional legal assistance in criminal proceedings

Introduction: the constitutional right of citizens to receive professional legal assistance can be secured if there is an effective and affordable mechanism for reimbursing expenses related to legal assistance from an attorney. The insufficient scientific research on the topic as well as not always effective reforms of the institutions of reimbursing expenses for the attorney's assistance to rehabilitated persons and to victims, the collection from the convict of procedural costs related to the renumeration of the appointed attorney, result in judicial errors when resolving issues of reimbursement of such expenses, which, in turn, leads to violation of the rights of participants in the criminal process. The purpose of the study is, first, to identify the legal nature, the most effective procedural form, and fair limits of reimbursement for legal assistance received by: a rehabilitated person, a person unreasonably prosecuted in a criminal case of private prosecution, a victim - on a reimbursable basis (under an agreement with an attorney) as well as by the suspect or the accused having no possibility to hire an attorney -on a non-reimbursable basis (with funding from the federal budget); second, to formulate proposals for further improvement of the institution of procedural costs reimbursement.