How to Reduce or Defer the Court Fee: Motion and Evidence

When this is needed

A motion under Article 8 is useful when the re­quired court fee creates a real fi­nan­cial ob­sta­cle for an in­di­vid­ual and the doc­u­ments can show the court that person’s fi­nan­cial cir­cum­stances. It is not a way to post­pone payment without ex­pla­na­tion: connect the ap­plic­a­ble fee, legal ground, fi­nan­cial facts, and a clear request.

Before cal­cu­lat­ing, check the two earlier routes. Under Article 3, a fee may not be charged for a par­tic­u­lar action, and Article 5 may di­rect­ly exempt a person or cat­e­go­ry of cases from payment. Only then de­ter­mine the full fee for the spe­cif­ic claim, ap­pli­ca­tion, or appeal.

If relying on the 5% thresh­old, use the court fee thresh­old cal­cu­la­tor. For a civil claim, the court fee cal­cu­la­tor for claims can help check the full fee sep­a­rate­ly. Both results are prepara­to­ry cal­cu­la­tions, not a de­ci­sion on an ex­emp­tion.

Applicable deadline or procedure

Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine “On Court Fees” allows a court, taking a party’s fi­nan­cial cir­cum­stances into account, to defer or permit payment in in­stall­ments under spec­i­fied con­di­tions. For an in­di­vid­ual, one con­di­tion is that the fee exceeds 5% of their annual income for the pre­ced­ing cal­en­dar year. The of­fi­cial text is in­clud­ed in the ver­i­fied sources below.

The formula for this ground is:

threshold = documented income for the preceding calendar year × 5%.

The com­par­i­son is strict: the fee must be greater than, not equal to, the thresh­old. For example, with income of 300 000 UAH, the thresh­old is 15 000 UAH. A fee of 15 000 UAH does not exceed it, while 15 000.01 UAH does. Even in the second case, the court is not re­quired to grant the request au­to­mat­i­cal­ly.

The law also pro­vides al­ter­na­tive con­di­tions related to the claimant’s status or the subject matter of the claim. These cannot be reduced to a nu­mer­i­cal cal­cu­la­tor: check the precise pro­vi­sion, actual status, and sub­stance of the claims. On the same grounds, the court may reduce or waive the fee.

There is no uni­ver­sal sched­ule for de­fer­ral or in­stall­ments. The court sets the terms in light of the request and cir­cum­stances, but the law limits the period to the date the court issues its de­ci­sion in the case. Do not present a pre­ferred payment cal­en­dar as a guar­an­teed rule.

Steps to take

1. Iden­ti­fy the pro­ce­dur­al doc­u­ment, court in­stance, and full fee.
2. Check Ar­ti­cles 3 and 5 and any special pro­vi­sions before relying on Article 8.
3. Select the rel­e­vant Article 8 ground: the 5% thresh­old, doc­u­ment­ed status, or the ap­plic­a­ble subject matter of the claim.
4. If using the thresh­old, gather data on all income for the pre­ced­ing cal­en­dar year and cal­cu­late the amount in hryv­nias and kopecks.
5. Prepare ev­i­dence of fi­nan­cial cir­cum­stances beyond a single salary cer­tifi­cate: income, ac­counts, assets, de­pen­dents, re­cur­ring ex­pens­es, and other rel­e­vant facts.
6. Make a spe­cif­ic request: defer payment, allow in­stall­ments, reduce the fee to a jus­ti­fied amount, or waive it.
7. File the motion with the pro­ce­dur­al doc­u­ment or by the dead­line in the court order, and keep proof of filing.

For a Kyiv case, do not replace the legal grounds with the details of a par­tic­u­lar court. First check ju­ris­dic­tion and filing method, and verify payment details only on the of­fi­cial re­source of the chosen court. If the claim has already been left without move­ment, follow the guide to cor­rect­ing de­fi­cien­cies and meet the dead­line in the order.

What to check before filing

Compare the periods covered by all cer­tifi­cates. For an ap­pli­ca­tion in 2026, income is mea­sured for cal­en­dar year 2025. A cer­tifi­cate for the last six months, the current account balance, or one month’s salary may add context about fi­nan­cial cir­cum­stances, but does not replace the basis for the 5% formula.

Check whether the ev­i­dence covers all ma­te­r­i­al sources of funds. If a par­tic­u­lar source of income is absent, support that with of­fi­cial in­for­ma­tion and an ex­pla­na­tion rather than simply en­ter­ing zero in the cal­cu­la­tion. The court con­sid­ers not only the formal income figure but also the person’s actual ability to pay.

Make sure the relief re­quest­ed matches the reasons. For de­fer­ral, explain when payment may become pos­si­ble; for in­stall­ments, why partial pay­ments are re­al­is­tic; for re­duc­tion, why the pro­posed amount is af­ford­able; and for a waiver, why even a smaller or later payment would not remove the ob­sta­cle. This is the sup­port­ing case, not a sched­ule already set by the court.

When to consult a lawyer

A review is es­pe­cial­ly useful when the fee covers several claims, a dif­fer­ent rate applies to an appeal or cas­sa­tion, or there is un­cer­tain­ty about the claim value, an elec­tron­ic filing mul­ti­pli­er, or a direct ex­emp­tion. An error in the start­ing fee makes the income com­par­i­son un­in­for­ma­tive.

A lawyer can also help when income is ir­reg­u­lar, there is busi­ness income, prop­er­ty, foreign ac­counts, de­pen­dents, medical ex­pens­es, or other cir­cum­stances that must be ex­plained without con­ceal­ing facts. For a case in Kyiv or Kyiv Oblast, it is useful to check ju­ris­dic­tion, the pro­ce­dur­al doc­u­ment, the dead­line for com­ply­ing with the order, and the com­plete­ness of the motion’s at­tach­ments at the same time.