If you believe that a public authority has issued an unlawful decision or otherwise acted unlawfully with regards to your rights or duties, you have a right to challenge it in an administrative court. There may be certain requirements for your access to the court, but they cannot be so excessive that you are unable to fulfil them.
You have the right to bring a claim against a state institution and have it examined by an administrative court. However, this right has certain conditions:
Type of claim
You have to choose the right court for your claim. Administrative courts only deal with disputes between private persons and public authorities (e.g. a state institution, independent public body, municipality, self-government body) where these institutions have exercised public power.
example If a municipality refused to allow you to organize a gathering in the town square, you can appeal this decision to an administrative court.
Decisions taken by law enforcement agencies (the police or a prosecutor) about matters of a specific criminal case will not be examined by an administrative court.
example If the prosecutor has taken a decision to declare you a suspect in a criminal case, you cannot appeal this decision to an administrative court.
In Slovakia, mainly the regional courts (krajské súdy) serve as an administrative court of first instance. Some cases are devoted in first instance to the county courts (okresné súdy) or directly to the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic (Najvyšší súd Slovenskej republiky).
example You may challenge the decision of the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic in the regional court. However, the proposal of the general prosecutor to dissolve a political party due to its incompliance with democratic legal order will be decided by the Supreme Court in the first instance.
Appeal
In most cases, to access an administrative court, you first have to appeal the decision from a state institution or agent you disagree with to a higher official or department in that same institution or a higher institution.
example Before you can appeal decisions of the Tax Office (daňový úrad) to the court, you have to appeal them to the Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic (Finančné riaditeľstvo Slovenskej republiky).
Requirements
In bringing your claim to an administrative court, you may also be asked to fulfil other requirements such as time limits or to pay fees. These requirements cannot be demanding to the degree that you are unable to fulfil them, preventing you from bringing your claim to court.
Fees
You will be required to pay a fixed court fee to file a claim to an administrative court. If you are unable to pay this fee because of your financial situation, you can ask the court to relieve you from paying it or to reduce it.
Time limits
The time limits differ according to the kind of claim you want the court to examine. For example, the time limit for appealing a state institution’s decision is two month. But decision in asylum matters can be appealed within 30 days.
You must be careful in observing these time limits. However, if you have missed a deadline due to no fault of your own, you may ask the court to reinstate this time limit. You must ask for a renewal at the same court to which the limit was applied and send your request together with the documents necessary for filing your claim.