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Recoverable Costs Calculator (Portugal)

You won your case: how much can you claim from the losing side? Enter the value of the claim and what you paid to see the four heads of article 26.º of the Portuguese court-costs regulation.

Each party's court fee comes from the value of the claim under table I-A. Under other fees add only procedural steps and incidents, never fines (article 26.º, n.º 4 of the RCP).

Recoverable costs you can claim
€1,020.00
Court fee paid by each party
€510.00
a) The court fee you paid, in proportion to your win€510.00
b) Charges you paid€0.00
c) Compensation for your lawyer's fees€510.00
d) Enforcement agent's fees€0.00
Ceiling on the fee compensation (50%)€510.00

The ceiling is 50% of the court fees paid by BOTH parties added together, which here is €1,020.00 (article 26.º, n.º 3, point c) of the RCP).

You paid more in fees than the legal ceiling lets you recover. The difference of €990.00 stays with you, even though you won the case.

Who the losing party is and what share was won is the court's decision (articles 527.º onwards of the Code of Civil Procedure), so they are values you enter. Outside this calculator: the split between several winning parties, the cases where the public prosecutor or legal aid changes who pays, and the deadlines for challenging the note.

Educational estimate, not legal or financial advice. Official values: Regulamento das Custas Processuais.

What recoverable costs are and how you get them

When a Portuguese court orders someone to pay costs, that person owes two different things. One is the court’s own costs account. The other is the custas de parte: reimbursement of the winner’s expenses, paid directly by the losing party to the winning party without passing through the court (article 26.º, n.º 2 of the RCP). That is why Portaria 419-A/2009 states expressly, in article 30.º, that recoverable costs are not included in the costs account. Payment is not automatic: the winner has to send the court, the losing party and, where there is one, the enforcement agent an itemised and justified note within 10 days of the decision becoming final (article 25.º, n.º 1). Without that note there is nothing to collect.

The four heads of article 26.º, n.º 3

The law lists exactly what the losing party pays. Point a): the court fee the winner paid, in proportion to the win, which is the only head the law expressly scales down on a partial victory. Point b): the charges it bore, such as expert reports or translations, including the enforcement agent’s expenses. Point c): compensation for the lawyer’s fees, fixed at 50% of the court fees paid by both parties added together. Point d): the fees paid to the enforcement agent. The total in point c) also takes in the fees of procedural steps and incidents, but never fines, penalties or the taxa sancionatória, which n.º 4 expressly excludes.

The 50% figure is a ceiling, not a guaranteed amount

This is the rule most people read backwards. Article 26.º, n.º 5 requires the point c) amount to be reduced to the fees actually paid whenever those are lower than the 50%, and states that nothing is due under that head when no lawyer was appointed. So the 50% works as a cap in both directions: someone who paid €5,000 in fees on a €30,000 action recovers €510, not €5,000; someone who paid €300 recovers €300, not €510; and someone with no lawyer recovers nothing under this head. Portaria 419-A/2009 confirms it from the other side in article 32.º, requiring only amounts up to the article 26.º, n.º 3, point c) limit to be considered. In practice, the more expensive the lawyer relative to the value of the case, the bigger the share the winner still carries.

Worked example

Suppose you won a €30,000 action outright. Under Table I-A each party paid €510 in court fees, so the two together come to €1,020 and the ceiling on the fee compensation is €510. If you paid your lawyer €1,500, the note reads: €510 of court fee (point a), plus €510 of fee compensation (point c), for a total of €1,020 to claim from the losing party. Note that €990 of your lawyer’s bill stays with you. Had you paid the lawyer only €300, you would recover €810; had you run the case without a lawyer, you would recover just the €510 court fee. And if the court had set your win at 60%, point a) would drop to €306, with the other heads unchanged.

Frequently asked questions

What are custas de parte?
They are the expenses the losing party has to reimburse the winner: the court fee paid, the charges borne, compensation for the lawyer’s fees and the enforcement agent’s fees. They are set out in article 26.º of the Regulamento das Custas Processuais and are paid directly by the losing party to the winner, not to the court.
Are recoverable costs the same as the court fee?
No. The court fee (taxa de justiça) is what each party pays the court at the start to move the case forward. Recoverable costs are the reimbursement at the end, from the loser to the winner, and they include that court fee but also charges and the lawyer-fee compensation. They are also distinct from the costs account: article 30.º of Portaria 419-A/2009 says they are not included in it.
How much of my lawyer’s fees do I get back?
At most 50% of the court fees paid by both parties added together, and never more than you actually paid. In a €30,000 action where each party pays €510, the ceiling is €510. If you paid €2,000 in fees you recover €510; if you paid €400 you recover €400. The difference always stays with the winner.
Do I get anything if I had no lawyer?
You get back the court fee you paid and the charges you bore, but not the fee compensation. Article 26.º, n.º 5 of the RCP is explicit: nothing is due under that head when no lawyer or enforcement agent was appointed.
What is the deadline to claim recoverable costs?
Within 10 days of the decision becoming final, or of notice that payment has been obtained in full, you must send the itemised and justified note to the court, to the losing party and to the enforcement agent where applicable. The note can still be corrected up to 10 days after notice of the costs account (article 25.º, n.º 1 of the RCP).
What if the other side disagrees with the note?
They can challenge it within 10 days of being notified, but that challenge requires depositing the full amount of the note. The judge decides within the same period, and there is an appeal, at one level only, solely if the note exceeds 50 units of account, that is €5,100 in 2026 (article 26.º-A of the RCP).
What if I only won part of the case?
The law scales down the court fee under point a) in proportion to the win. The other points are not expressly scaled. Note that in a partial victory both parties are usually ordered to pay costs in their respective proportions, so each can file its own note. The proportion is set by the court under articles 527.º onwards of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Does someone on legal aid pay recoverable costs?
If the losing party has legal aid in the form of a court-fee waiver, the reimbursement of the fees paid by the winner is borne by the Institute for Financial Management and Justice Facilities. And if it is the winning party that has that waiver, the recoverable costs paid by the loser go to that same institute rather than to them (article 26.º, n.os 6 and 7 of the RCP).

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Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-08-08