Belgian Judicial Fees Updated: New Procedural Indemnity Scales and Third-Party Funding Liability Rules for 2026

Understand Article 1017 cost awards in Belgium, including the new €47k procedural indemnity cap and the liability of third-party funders in civil and arbitral courts.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 24, 2026, 6:05 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from The International Comparative Legal Guide

The Statutory Ceiling on Legal Fee Recovery

In Belgian litigation, the successful party is entitled to have their legal costs covered by the opponent, provided those expenses are not deemed excessive. However, this does not equate to a full reimbursement of actual attorney invoices. Instead, Article 1018 of the BJC prescribes a "procedural indemnity," which is a flat-rate contribution toward legal fees. Since March 2025, these rates have been adjusted for inflation, ranging from approximately €235 to over €23,500 for standard monetary claims. In exceptional cases involving complex litigation or unreasonable submissions, the court maintains the discretion to increase this indemnity to a maximum cap of €47,093.02.

Third-Party Funding and the Allocation of Costs

A critical distinction in Belgian law is that litigation funding costs—the success fees or interest paid to a funder—are not recoverable from the losing side. The court’s authority is strictly limited to the costs enumerated in the Judicial Code, which excludes private financing arrangements. Despite this, the presence of a funder can play a subtle, indirect role in the final award. Judges may consider the financial capacity of the parties or the inherent complexity of a funded case when deciding whether to move the procedural indemnity toward the higher or lower end of the statutory scale.

Arbitration and the Equity Distribution Key

Unlike the rigid formulas used in civil courts, Belgian arbitration tribunals operate under Article 1713 of the BJC, which grants them significantly broader discretion. Arbitrators are not bound by the "loser pays" rule and can design a custom "distribution key" based on equity and the specific circumstances of the case. Because the law defines party costs broadly as "all other expenses arising from the proceedings," there is a growing legal argument that litigation funding costs could be factored into an arbitral award. However, current practice shows that such orders remain rare in Belgian-seated arbitrations.