This precedent in the practice of the Constitutional Court means the state should earmark a total of HRK 1,278,000 for the 71 would-be public bailiffs, according to the unanimous decision of Constitutional Court judges engaged in this case.
The law-making bodies should have taken into account the consequences of their decisions to abolish the institute of public bailiffs, according to the court.
The 71 public bailiffs, appointed by the justice minister, had to leave their previous employments and incur costs for equipping their offices, only to be later notified that Croatia dropped the plan to have public bailiffs.
The court's reporting judge Duska Sarin said on Wednesday that the court had adopted a decision to offset those losses, but it had turned down a motion to assess the constitutionality of the law on public bailiffs, which had been rescinded in the meantime.
The law on public bailiffs was passed by the Croatian parliament in November 2010, and after being amended on two occasions, the law was rescinded in September 2012, only nine days before the first public bailiffs were to have started operating.
Later on Wednesday, the head of the association of public bailiffs, Vedran Vidmar, said that their costs were higher than the awarded compensation which was why they would seek higher damages in their individual lawsuits.
We will seek compensation for the costs of our investments as well as for the targeted earnings we planned but could not have earned, he added.