Invoicing of the firm’s fees is carried out depending on the service rendered, the competence specialty and seniority of the Barrister(s) working on the file, taking account of the complexity of the case.
When each file is opened, the client is informed as to the Barrister(s) who will assist him and of the pricing schedule applied. The client is free to request that one or several partners or experienced staff members work on the file exclusively.
Since it was set up, the firm has opted for hourly pricing.
The hourly rate for Seniors Barristers and Partners goes from € 280 to € 380 before tax.
For Associates, depending on their seniority and their specialisation are invoiced for their work at an hourly rate from € 200 to € 240 before tax. The hourly rate applicable for the paralegal is € 150 before tax.
The invoice for fees and expenses is sent monthly to the client and, apart from the type of services, specifies the period concerned by them.
Although a quota litis agreement is forbidden under professional ethics, the client may at the beginning of each file or at the end of it, make an agreement with his lawyer to pay him “fees for result” over and above the amount invoiced for handling the case for success obtained.
Fees for result can be envisaged both as legal council and litigation or arbitration based on the profit or the saving obtained by the client.
Although reference to time spent is the firm’s basic principle for invoicing, for clients having a large number of files of the same type the firm may propose that its services be invoiced either in the form of a lumpsum payment or in the form of a subscription.
Lumpsum payments or subscriptions are negotiated on a case by case basis with the client. They may be payable either monthly or quarterly and are re-valued on each anniversary date of their conclusion.
Although lumpsum payments is generally implement within the framework of repetitive litigation, subscription is advised for companies within the framework of legal follow up and in the field of legal advising.
In these cases, the client benefits from a certain number of hours of work invoiced at a very advantageous rate, said rate increasing progressively as other hourly brackets are used, before reaching the firm’s standard invoicing rate.
Even if the first bracket of hours of the subscription or lumpsum is not used or only partly used the latter is due in whole.
For any and all information or queries concerning the information on an invoice, the firm’s accounting department and partners are at the disposal of the client to give him any requisite answers as soon as possible.
