Lawyer

Verified 25 October 2023 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

You have a dispute with a person or a company? You have to face legal proceedings? You can consult a lawyer to advise you or to defend yourself. The lawyer is a legal professional whose action is governed by the law. The profession of lawyer is exercised in a liberal and independent manner, in accordance with ethical rules. We present you with the information you need to know.

Advisory role

The lawyer has a legal advisory role.

He or she can give you legal opinions on a situation, and help you draft contracts or other privately signed documents.

The lawyer can also help you find an amicable solution to a dispute or assess the cost a legal proceeding and your chances of success.

FYI  

numerous devices make it possible to obtain locally a free consultation of a lawyer in order to explain your case for the first time and obtain an initial piece of advice.

Representation role

The lawyer can represent you in court, before various courts and before various actors of justice.

They can also act on your behalf and for you.

It is said that the lawyer plays the following two roles:

  • Apply : complete all trial formalities on your behalf
  • Argue : to speak and present your point of view to the court.

You can defend yourself in court unless the law requires you to have a lawyer.

In cases decided by the court of law, you are obliged to take a lawyer when the value of the dispute exceeds €10,000.

Similarly, you are obliged to take a lawyer for the following:

  • Cases arising in the context of EU litigationexecution
  • Children's court cases (only mandatory counsel for minor children)
  • Cases heard by the Court of Appeal in civil matters (except in matters of legal protection of adults, rural leases and social matters)
  • Cases heard by the Assize Court (lawyer required for the accused)

Assistive Role

Your lawyer can assist you at all stages of the procedure and ensure that your rights are respected in your relations with the various departments of the judicial institution.

In particular, the lawyer may:

  • Assist you during a police custody in the premises of the police or gendarmerie from 1re time of arrest
  • To have access to the investigation file at any time during the proceedings,
  • Request investigations from the investigative judge, who has one month to respond
  • Taking actions on your behalf while you are incarcerated

FYI  

if you can't afford a lawyer, you can make a application for legal aid.

Certification Role

The lawyer can countersign acts on a private basis, because he takes an oath at the time of his admission to the bar and his word is recognized by the courts.

The lawyer's signature attests that he has fully informed you of the legal consequences of the act and that he attests to the authenticity of its content and the signature of the parties.

Role of intermediary in real estate transactions

The lawyer can also act as an intermediary for real estate transactions: foreclosure, sharing, licitation (auction of a property in division) and judicial security.

The lawyer is bound by a number of professional rules.

A lot of these rules are about the relationship between the lawyer and the client.

The main professional rules of the lawyer are as follows:

  • Observance of professional secrecy : the lawyer is prohibited from revealing the content of conversations you have with him, except in cases provided by law
  • Observance of the confidentiality of investigations and investigations in criminal matters: the lawyer must not disclose the elements of the investigation file, except in the context of his defense work
  • Duty of loyalty : the lawyer may not advise or represent several parties to a case if there is a conflict of interest between them. Moreover, the client cannot accept a new case if there is a risk that the secrecy of information given by a former client will be violated, or if the information of which he is aware by a former client would favor the new client
  • Compliance with law : the lawyer must refuse to participate in the drafting of a manifestly unlawful or fraudulent act or convention
  • Obligation to obtain your consent before you contact your opponent to try to find an amicable solution to the dispute
  • Obligation to defend your interests to the best of your ability, even in relation to his own interests or those of his fellow lawyers
  • Obligation to inform you at the beginning of the method of calculating fees and any other costs that might be added to them, in particular by means of a fee agreement
  • Obligation to give you a detailed account at the end of the procedure which shows separately the amounts corresponding to his remuneration and the amounts corresponding to the fees paid on your behalf
  • Obligation to complete the case and the obligation to inform you promptly in case of withdrawal
  • Obligation to return the documents of the case to you as soon as the procedure is completed

Choice of lawyer

You are free to choose your lawyer at the beginning and during the course of the proceedings, even if you have legal aid.

But there are a few situations in which your freedom to choose the lawyer is restricted.

Territorial limit of the intervention of the lawyer

The choice of the lawyer who pleads for you is totally free, without territorial limitation.

But the choice of the lawyer who represents you before the court hearing the case is not entirely free.

Each lawyer can represent clients only before the courts of the court of appeal in which his professional residence is located.

If you have a case that is to be heard outside the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal on which your lawyer is based, he or she will have the right to plead before that court but will not be able to represent you before that court. In this case, your lawyer should ask a lawyer within the jurisdiction of the court of appeal of the jurisdiction to represent you and file the pleadings on your behalf.

In some specific proceedings, counsel may not represent you before all courts within the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal, but only before a single court with which they are registered. These procedures include:

Risk of conflict of interest

A lawyer cannot agree to defend you if you are in conflict with a party whose interests he was already defending. They must inform you of the risk of conflict of interest and refuse the mission.

Incompatibility

The lawyer shall not be entitled to engage in any other professional activity, except where such activity is authorized by law.

When a lawyer is authorized to practice another professional activity, there are sometimes restrictions on the exercise of his or her activity as a lawyer.

Thus, the lawyer may be forced not to accept certain files relating to the other activity pursued.

Here are some activities that can be performed by a lawyer, but with restrictions :

  • Private sector activity: member of the supervisory board of a business or business administrator
  • Political activity at national level: MP, MEP, Senator, Minister
  • Political activity at local level: municipal councilor, councilor general, regional councilor, mayor
  • Ancient civil servant activity in the territorial civil service or in the State civil service

Court-appointed lawyer

When you need a lawyer for a proceeding and you don't have one, a court-appointed lawyer may be designated to defend you.

In this case, you are not the one who freely chooses the lawyer.

The public defender may be appointed by the bastler or by the judge, at your request or on the judge's initiative.

This is the case when you are alone before the court for a proceeding in which representation by counsel is mandatory.

Counsel

The use of a lawyer is compulsory before the Conseil d’État and the Cour de Cassation, except in a few special cases.

You must choose a member of theBar Association at the Council of State and the Court of Cassation to represent you in one of these two jurisdictions.

Lawyer's estate

If you want to take action against your lawyer, the new lawyer you are seeking must ask the president's permission before agreeing to defend you against his colleague.

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.

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