A lawyer: why, how to choose and how to check
The law does not require a lawyer. Whether to hire one, and which one, is each depositor’s personal decision; the depositors’ group does not oblige anyone to go to a particular lawyer.
AOD has published ready-made forms. On 04.11.2026 AOD published a claim template (prijava potraživanja) and authorisation forms (ovlašćenje) for ALTA depositors to collect the insured amount up to €50,000 at Poštanska; an individual’s authorisation is certified by a notary and dated no earlier than 30.10.2026 (AOD forms). This is not a power of attorney for a lawyer to file a claim with the court. Our conclusion: with AOD’s template you can file the claim yourself. That does not guarantee any outcome: you still have to meet the filing deadline and include the items required by art. 111 of the Bankruptcy Law. What to fill in: «Claim template».
- Decide: alone or with a lawyerThe law does not require a lawyer
- Check the lawyerBar directory and court decisions
- Power of attorney and claimEach person has their own, even with a shared lawyer
- File before the deadlineBy 4 February 2027
Alone or with a lawyer
Section titled “Alone or with a lawyer”On your own
- You write the claim using AOD’s template (open the template, what to fill in) or in free form with the mandatory items of art. 111 (AOD). What to write: the claim template.
- You calculate the amount and interest and gather the agreements and statements.
- You file with the Commercial Court in Belgrade by 4 February 2027 and follow the list of claims yourself.
- An individual can also be represented by a blood relative in the direct line, a brother, a sister or a spouse; a company only by a lawyer or by a law graduate who has passed the bar exam and is employed by the company (art. 85 LCP).
A lawyer
- Drafts and files the claim with every item of art. 111 of the Bankruptcy Law.
- Calculates the amount and checks the documents.
- Follows the list of recognised claims; if the claim is disputed, files a lawsuit within 15 days.
- Charges under the Bar tariff and must give you a statement (art. 23).
In detail: what a lawyer does at the claim stage, and under which articles
A lawyer drafts applications and other court documents and represents the client (Law on the Legal Profession, art. 3). If the power of attorney does not limit the powers, the lawyer may take every procedural step on the client’s behalf (Law on Civil Procedure, art. 89; it applies in bankruptcy under art. 7 of the Bankruptcy Law). For a claim in the ALTA bankruptcy this means:
- Draft and file the claim (prijava potraživanja) with the Commercial Court in Belgrade, with every item the law requires: the creditor’s name and address, personal number (JMBG), account number, the legal basis of the claim, the amount — principal and interest calculation shown separately — and what exactly the creditor asks the court to recognise. A foreign-currency claim is filed in that currency (Bankruptcy Law, art. 111 para. 1–2).
- Calculate the amount and check the documents: account and deposit agreements, statements, contractual interest.
- File on time: claim for the amount above €50,000 — by 4 February 2027. Where this deadline comes from → How to watch for the publication: see the Claim page.
- Follow the list of recognised claims. After the deadline AOD, as the bankruptcy administrator, examines every claim and draws up a list of recognised and disputed claims (Bankruptcy Law, art. 113 para. 2; art. 17 of the Law on Bankruptcy and Liquidation of Banks). The court posts the list on its notice board (art. 113 para. 4). A creditor whose claim is disputed is notified by AOD in person at least 15 days before the claims examination hearing; at the creditor’s request AOD must review the claim again together with the creditor and any new evidence (art. 113 para. 5).
- If the claim is disputed, file a lawsuit within 15 days. The court refers the creditor to civil proceedings; the lawsuit is filed within 15 days of receiving the court’s decision on the list of claims. A creditor who does not sue in time loses creditor status for the disputed part (art. 116, art. 117 para. 1–2). The bankruptcy judge must be told about the lawsuit within 15 days (art. 117 para. 4).
Choosing a lawyer: who can represent you, confidentiality, fees
- A natural person can be represented in proceedings by a lawyer, or by a blood relative in the direct line, a brother, a sister or a spouse (art. 85 of the Law on Civil Procedure).
- A lawyer decides freely whether to take a case (Law on the Legal Profession, art. 18) and must keep confidential everything the client has entrusted to them (art. 20).
- A lawyer’s fee and expenses are calculated under the tariff of the Bar Association of Serbia: the amount depends on the type of proceedings, the step taken and the value at stake. The lawyer must give the client a statement of the fee and expenses (art. 23).
Teaming up with other depositors
Section titled “Teaming up with other depositors”- Power of attorney (punomoćje) — written, from each client; the lawyer attaches it to the first document filed (art. 90 and 91 LCP).
- Claim — own name, JMBG, account and amount (art. 111). There is no “collective” claim — why.
- The group gets no special rights — what teaming up gives.
If it comes to a lawsuit: co-plaintiffs
Several creditors may sue together as co-plaintiffs when their claims are of the same kind and rest on essentially the same facts and legal grounds (art. 205 para. 1 of the Law on Civil Procedure). Each co-plaintiff remains an independent party: their actions or omissions neither help nor harm the others (art. 209).
A law firm’s offer received by the group
Section titled “A law firm’s offer received by the group”According to the depositors’ initiative group; there is no official source. Below is a summary of the group’s channel post and the firm’s website; we have not verified the terms.
On 05.11.2026 the depositors’ initiative group published one of the offers it had received: the law partnership Milovanović i partneri (Belgrade) offers to represent depositors with more than EUR 50,000 (channel post). This is not a recommendation. A lawyer is not required and you can file the claim yourself; whether to hire a lawyer, and which one, is each depositor’s own decision.
- What is included, according to them: review of documents, preparing and filing an individual claim for each depositor, checking that it is entered in the list of claims, following the procedure until the list is drawn up. A separate contract with each depositor.
- Price per person, as stated (depends on how many join the group): 300 or more — EUR 50; 200–300 — EUR 120; 100–200 — EUR 180; 50–100 — EUR 200; under 50 — EUR 350.
- Not included: additional documents, appeals against rejections and court disputes — separately, by agreement. A lawsuit over a disputed claim must be filed within 15 days (art. 116–117 of the Bankruptcy Law) — ask about that price in advance.
- The offer promises no result. Claims of the same payment class are paid proportionally (art. 54 of the Bankruptcy Law), whoever filed them and however.
What we checked
- Bar directory. According to its website, the partnership was founded by Dragan Milovanović; he is entered in the directory of the Bar Association of Belgrade (search; the results show several namesakes — the right one is in the Belgrade bar, Kursulina 41). The firm’s website gives a different address (Kralja Milana 33) — check the address and phone against the directory.
- Supreme Court decisions. The Supreme Court database has dozens of cases with his name, mostly labour and commercial disputes on the side of companies and banks. Bankruptcy-related ones: Prev 312/2016 — avoidance of the debtor’s transactions in bankruptcy (represented one of the defendants); Prev 145/2017 — represented a company in bankruptcy; Prev 661/2023 — represented Raiffeisen Banka in a dispute where a company in bankruptcy was an intervener. We found no cases where the firm filed claims of a bankrupt bank’s depositors.
- Price. Under the tariff, drafting a claim in bankruptcy earns the same fee as a lawsuit under tariff number 13 (tariff number 32). For example, for a claim of 67,000 to 134,000 points (RSD 3.35–6.7 million) the fee is 750 points, for 134,000 to 267,000 points (RSD 6.7–13.35 million) 1,000 points; one point is RSD 50 (art. 15), i.e. RSD 37,500 and 50,000. If the filing consists of filling in a form, 50% of that fee (tariff number 32) (tariff). A lawyer must give the client a statement of fees (Law on the Legal Profession, art. 23).
How to check a lawyer
Section titled “How to check a lawyer”Listed in the bar directory
A lawyer is a person entered in the directory who has taken the oath (art. 4). Search in Latin letters with diacritics: “Đorđević”.
Contact details match
City, office address and phone — as in the directory. Call the number from there. A “legal consultant” (pravnik, not a member of the bar) or an agency is not a lawyer: how to tell.
Court decisions name them
Lawyers’ names are not hidden in published decisions. Enter the surname and “stečaj”.
What to look for in a decision
- Side
- creditor, debtor, administrator
- Outcome
- what the court decided on appeal
- Stečaj
- whether it was a bankruptcy case
In detail: where to search the directories
A lawyer is a person entered in a bar association’s directory (register) of lawyers who has taken the lawyer’s oath (Law on the Legal Profession, art. 4 item 2). Checking is free:
- Directory of the Bar Association of Serbia — search by first name, surname and bar association (Belgrade, Niš, Kragujevac, Čačak, Zaječar, Požarevac and Šabac). Type in Latin letters with diacritics: “Đorđević”, not “Djordjevic”; Cyrillic is not accepted. The Bar Association warns that each lawyer updates their own details.
- Vojvodina and Novi Sad — directory of the Bar Association of Vojvodina (search by surname, first name and city).
- Belgrade — also the directory of the Bar Association of Belgrade.
- All associations are listed on the Bar Association of Serbia page; the link to akb.org.rs there is outdated, use the Belgrade address above.
Compare the city, office address and phone number, and call the number from the directory. How to tell a lawyer from a “legal consultant” (pravnik, not a member of the bar) or an agency: Stay safe: avoid scams.
In detail: how to search court decisions
Decisions of the higher courts are published in open databases. Names of parties who are private individuals are hidden, but names of lawyers acting as representatives are not (Supreme Court rules on pseudonymising decisions). So you can search the text of decisions for a lawyer’s surname.
- Supreme Court decisions database — free, no registration: the field “Koja sadrži ključne reči” (keywords) or “Koja sadrži deo teksta” (part of the text). Enter the lawyer’s surname and, for example, “stečaj”.
- Case-law database of the Serbian courts — decisions of the Supreme Court, the appellate courts, the Commercial Appellate Court and others; there is a filter by subject matter “Стечај, реорганизација и ликвидација” (bankruptcy, reorganisation and liquidation). Search is available on the site.
What to look for in a decision:
- Which side they represented: a creditor, the debtor, the bankruptcy administrator or another party. The opening of the decision says whom the lawyer represents (“čiji je punomoćnik … advokat iz …”).
- The outcome: what the court decided on the appeal or the revision.
- Whether it was a bankruptcy (stečaj) case — any company, not necessarily a bank.
What to ask a lawyer
Section titled “What to ask a lawyer”A list of questions to ask before signing: What should I ask a lawyer.