Who must bear the costs incurred in an administrative procedure, and which expenses does the proviso leave to the party that paid them?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
The practice file for this exercise is read for the papers showing what the administrative procedure required and who paid for it: the notices, certified copies and public notices the administrative agency issued and served, any request the agency made for a party to obtain a document or expert opinion, and the receipts or applications recording what a party then spent itself.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the main clause and the proviso together: the costs incurred in the administrative procedure are borne by the administrative agency, and the exception covers only those costs which a party or interested person spent for itself, of its own accord, so an expense of that kind stays with that person.
Another reading notes that the provision does not define what counts as a cost 'incurred in the administrative procedure' or as spent 'for itself', so where the agency asked a party to obtain a document or opinion and the party paid, the text alone does not settle whose burden the expense is.
Your judgment
If a party obtained a document at the agency's request, does the payment remain a cost the party spent for itself, and what in the file would show that?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to define whose costs an expense of that kind is, or if a decision explains when a cost paid by a party nonetheless counts as one incurred in the administrative procedure.