File and searching in a file
A file is opened and kept regarding the course of the administrative proceedings. The file is identified by its file number and contains a list of file materials – i.e. an inventory of all of its components (submissions, reports, records, written copies of decisions and other acts performed by administrative bodies) including appendices, with a record of the date on which they were filed.
Parties to the proceedings and their representatives are entitled to search in the file under Section 38(1) of the Administrative Procedure Code, even after the decision on the case is already final. Searching in the file by persons other than those specified above is governed by Section 38(2) of the Administrative Procedure Code. The right to search the file also includes the right to search all of its appendices.
The contents of the file will be read to blind persons. On request, the administrative authority will allow the blind person to make an audio recording. The administrative authority will also allow the blind person’s guide to search the file.
The right to search the file carries with it the right for the administrative authority to make a copy of the file or part thereof. A fee will be charged for the issue of counterparts, transcripts, copies, photocopies or extracts according to a fee schedule which forms an annex to the Act on Administrative Fees, most often this is CZK 15 per each page or part thereof, if the copy is made on a photocopier or computer printer.
The MOI CR will not make or send a copy of the file on the basis of a written application by a party directly to this party or to his/her representative, since the right of making a copy of a file is linked with the right of viewing the file. The party has the opportunity to request that a copy of the file be made during his/her act of viewing the file at an MOI CR office where copies will be made and handed over after payment of the appropriate administrative fee.
Parts of the file which contain: classified information or information where the pledge of confidentiality imposed or recognized by statute applies, are disqualified from searching the file; this does not apply to parts of the file which were or will be used for production of evidence, nevertheless the participant or participant’s representative may search such parts of the file after they were acquainted with consequences of breaching the pledge of confidentiality if a report was made about the warning.
In practice, the MOI CR recommends that the party to the proceedings contact the relevant MOI CR office under whose jurisdiction the party to the proceedings falls, and that office will inform him/her whether the file is located at that office and the office will agree on a date on which it will be possible to view the file. If the file is not located at the office, that office will contact the entitled party and make an appointment for viewing the file as soon as the file arrives at that office.
If the file is in the appeal phase and has already been sent to the appeal authority, the right to view the file must be claimed at that authority.