How is the lawyer paid?
Verified 25 October 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
The main elements that the lawyer can charge you for his intervention are the fees, the emoluments, and fresh or disbursements.
Some of these invoiced items are sometimes covered by contributions directly paid to the lawyer by the State, if you havelegal aid.
The costs are not part of the items billed to you by the lawyer.
The fees constitute the most large part of it the lawyer's salary. They cover shares conducted by the lawyer in the interest of his client, namely, consultations, advice, drafting of a legal act, pleadings. They are set freely by the lawyer.
The emoluments are remuneration of which the tariff is fixed by law and that lawyers receive for the performance of certain specific acts like the auction of a property in division and foreclosure.
The disbursements or fresh are advances made by the lawyer to pay expenditure which are not not included in its remuneration or expenditure which are incumbent upon you personally.
The fees you will pay to the lawyer will vary depending on whether you receive legal aid or not.
General case
The lawyer's fees are not regulated as those of notary or those of Commissioner of Justice, except in the case of a license (auction of property in division), judicial security, sharing and foreclosure.
Each lawyer shall freely determine, in agreement with his client, the cost of the services he charges him, taking into account the following practices and elements:
- Customer's financial situation
- Difficulty of the case
- Time spent on the case
- Importance of research work
- Importance of the interests at stake
- Famous lawyer
- Experience and specialization of the lawyer
- Importance of the outcome to the customer
- Expenses incurred by counsel
A lawyer may choose to set his or her remuneration on the basis of the time spent on the case, by applying an hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours spent on the case.
The lawyer may also choose to fix his or her remuneration at a flat rate which constitutes an overall and final remuneration for the entire procedure. This charging method is more often used for simple procedures.
Lawyers must post their free rates and regulated rates (e.g. for foreclosure) on their premises.
Except in cases of emergency or force majeure, the lawyer must propose to you during the first appointment an agreement which fixes the amount of his remuneration and the various costs and disbursements envisaged.
You can find different convention templates on the National Bar Council website.
Who shall I contact
When the fees seem too high, you can ask the president of the Bar Association to ask for a fee reduction.
Excessive fees may be sanctioned by the Bar Association or by the criminal justice system, in particular in cases of abuse of weakness.
The lawyer can sometimes benefit from a supplementary fee.
First of all, the supplementary fee must be provided for in the binding agreement that the lawyer must propose to you from the beginning of the collaboration.
Then, the additional fee must be fixed taking into account the following:
- Result obtained by the work of the lawyer
- Service that was rendered to you by the lawyer
- Your financial situation
Warning
fees fixed solely on the basis of the result obtained in court are prohibited. This method of remuneration may concern only a supplementary fee.
When the additional fee seems too high or unjustified, you can ask the president of the Bar Association to ask for a reduction.
Excessive or unjustified supplementary fees may be sanctioned by the Bar Association or by the criminal justice system, in particular in cases of abuse of weakness.
The lawyer can charge you, in addition to his fees, disbursements.
Disbursements are advances made by the lawyer to pay expenses that are not included in the lawyer's fees (photocopying fees, correspondence fees), or expenses that are incumbent on you personally (payment of taxes).
If you find that the fees charged by the lawyer are too high, you can ask the president of the Bar Association to ask for a reduction.
Excessive costs may be punished by the Bar Association or by the criminal justice system, particularly in cases of abuse of weakness.
Who shall I contact
FYI
to get a first level of information about your situation, you can consult free of charge a lawyer.
Lawyers are subject to the VAT, unless their turnover is less than €47,770and that they benefit from the exemption from VAT. In this case, they are exempt from VAT.
Your lawyer must tell you, when he proposes the fee agreement, whether he is subject to VAT or whether he benefits from the exemption from VAT.
The applicable VAT rate is 20%.
If your lawyer is subject to VAT, he must apply this tax on the sums he charges you.
Thus, VAT applies to the lawyer's fees, to the compensation paid by the State in the context of legal aid and to the costs which the lawyer advances directly for the performance of his task and which are of a flat-rate nature (travel costs, photocopying costs, etc.).
However, VAT does not apply to disbursements that the lawyer charges directly on your behalf and that he records separately in his accounts.
VAT does not apply to costs.
Partial legal aid
The lawyer's fees are not regulated as those of notary or those of Commissioner of Justice, except in the case of a license (auction of property in division) and foreclosure.
Each lawyer sets the cost of the services he charges his client, but taking into account the practices, and the following elements:
- Customer's financial situation
- Difficulty of the case
- Time spent on the case
- Importance of research work
- Importance of the interests at stake
- Famous lawyer
- Experience and specialization of the lawyer
- Importance of the outcome to the customer
- Expenses incurred by counsel
A lawyer may choose to set his or her remuneration on the basis of the time spent on the case, by applying an hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours spent on the case.
The lawyer may also choose to fix his or her remuneration at a flat rate which constitutes an overall and final remuneration for the entire procedure. This charging method is more often used for simple procedures.
Lawyers must post their free rates and regulated rates (e.g. for foreclosure) on their premises.
Except in cases of emergency or force majeure, the lawyer must propose to you during the first appointment an agreement which fixes the amount of his remuneration and the various costs and disbursements envisaged.
If the lawyer incurred expenses before legal aid was granted, he can charge you for them.
You can find different convention templates on the National Bar Council website.
Who shall I contact
The lawyer can charge you, in addition to his fees, disbursements.
Disbursements are advances made by the lawyer to pay expenses that are not included in the lawyer's fees (photocopying fees, correspondence fees), or expenses that are incumbent on you personally (payment of taxes).
If you benefit from thepartial legal aidHowever, your lawyer's fees are partially covered and you will have to pay the rest.
The level of legal aid coverage is determined according to your resources and the composition of your tax household. It may be 25% or 55%.
If you have obtained partial legal aid, the lawyer can ask you for a freely negotiated additional fee.
This additional fee must be provided for in a written agreement that the lawyer will have you sign at the beginning of the collaboration.
The additional fee shall be fixed taking into account the following:
- Complexity of the case
- Due diligence and costs imposed by the nature of the case
- Your financial situation (resources and wealth)
The agreement must provide for the amount and methods of payment of this additional fee, recalling the amount of the legal aid contribution.
The agreement must indicate the remedies that you can exercise in case of dispute.
It must be communicated within 15 days of its signature to the president who checks its regularity as well as the amount of the additional fee.
Where the lawyer's bar establishes a method of evaluating fees taking into account the criteria set, the amount of the supplement shall be calculated on the basis of that method of evaluation.
You will find a model agreement for additional fees in the case of partial legal aid.
Model of supplementary fee agreement in the case of partial legal aid
FYI
to get a first level of information about your situation, you can consult free of charge a lawyer.
Lawyers are subject to the VAT, unless their turnover is less than €47,770and that they benefit from the exemption from VAT. In this case, they are exempt from VAT.
Your lawyer must tell you, when he proposes the fee agreement, whether he is subject to VAT or whether he benefits from the exemption from VAT.
The applicable VAT rate is 20%.
If your lawyer is subject to VAT, he must apply this tax on the sums he charges you.
Thus, VAT applies to the lawyer's fees, to the compensation paid by the State in the context of legal aid and to the costs which the lawyer advances directly for the performance of his task and which are of a flat-rate nature (travel costs, photocopying costs, etc.).
However, VAT does not apply to disbursements that the lawyer charges directly on your behalf and that he records separately in his accounts.
VAT does not apply to costs.
Total legal aid
Your lawyer's fees are paid in full and you do not have to pay anything.
Who can help me?
Find who can answer your questions in your region
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