The improvement of the Free Legal Aid system, as well as specific issues of civil procedure costs in cases where the party is represented by the Center for Provision of Free Legal Aid – these are the reasons for the Law on Ammendments to the Law on Civil Procedure in Republika Srpska (hereinafter: “the Law”).

On April 7^th 2026, the Law was published in the “Official Gazette of Republika Srpska”, issue 29/26, hence it comes into force eight days after the publishing date, i.e., on April 15^th of the same year.

Key amendments to the Law, regarding the former regulation:

• Regulating the issue of civil procedure costs in cases where the party is represented by the Center for Provision of Free Legal Aid, in such a way that in case of success in the dispute, the awarded costs of the proceedings are not paid to the party, but to the Center as the provider of free legal aid.

Civil procedures initiated before this Law came into force shall be completed per the previous Law on Civil Procedure in Republika Srpska.

Compared to earlier legislative amendments within procedural legislation, this amendment has a limited scope and referes explicitly to specifying issues on adjudication to the costs of litigation proceedings, without a broader impact on other procedural rules.

The purpose of passing the Law in question is to improve efficacy of the Free Legal Aid system, while at the same time providing additional income to the budget funds of Republika Srpska.