18 expenses at US$40,000 (fourty thousand United States of America dollars), to be divided equally between the Garrido and Baigorria relatives. 77. At the January 20, 1998 hearing, attorney Varela-Alvarez repeated the US$40,000 (fourty thousand United States of America dollars) requested as reimbursement of costs incurred by the victims’ relatives in connection with these proceedings. The attorney in question stated, under oath, that neither he nor his colleague had received any restitution of expenses and that they had paid all of their expenses out of their own funds (supra 35). He added that he should also be reimbursed for the expenses incurred to attend this hearing, which he estimated at $1,500 (fifteen hundred United States of America dollars). Attorney Varela-Alvarez provided receipts for some of the expenditures. 78. Neither the Argentine State nor the Inter-American Commission objected to the costs that the victims’ families claimed. During the hearing, only one judge on the Court asked about one expense, which attorney Varela-Álvarez explained. 79. As for the previous suggestions, the Court believes that in the instant case it should examine the issue of costs under the terms of subparagraph (h) of Article 55(1) of its Rules of Procedure. Costs are one element to be considered under the concept of reparations to which Article 63(1) of the Convention refers since they are a natural consequence of the effort made by the victim, his or her beneficiaries, or representatives to obtain a court settlement recognizing the violation committed and establishing its legal consequences. In other words, the activity they undertake to accede to the courts, a recourse provided for in the Convention, entails or can entail financial outlays or commitments for which the victim must be compensated when a guilty verdict is delivered. 80. In keeping with the relevant provisions and practice, the Court considers that the costs to which Article 55.1 of its Rules of Procedure refers include the various payments a victim makes or pledges to make in order to be able to have recourse to the inter-American system for protection of human rights. This includes the routine honoraria paid to those who provide the victim with legal assistance. Obviously, the only expenses allowed are those that are necessary and reasonable according to the specifics of each case, and that the victim or his or her representative has actually paid out or promised to pay. 81. Under Article 23 of the Court’s Rules of Procedure, at the reparations phase the representatives of the victims or of their next of kin may independently submit their own arguments and evidence before this Court. This recognition of the representatives’ locus standi opens up the possibility of representation-related expenses. In practice, the legal assistance provided to the victim does not begin with the reparations phase; instead, it begins with the proceedings before the domestic courts and continues throughout each phase of the proceedings under the inter-American system for the protection of human rights, in other words, in the proceedings conducted before the Commission and before the Court, except when the legal assistance the victim or his family receives is free. For the purposes now under consideration, costs also include those incurred for recourse to the domestic courts (cf. Aloeboetoe et al. Case, Reparations, supra 40, para. 94; Caballero Delgado and Santana Case, Reparations, supra 40, para. 47 and operative paragraph 2: El Amparo Case, Reparations, supra 40, para. 21 and Neira Alegría et al. Case, Reparations, supra 40, para. 42) and the costs of representation before two international bodies: the Commission and the Court.