TARIFF FOR LAWYERS
TARIFF FOR LAWYERS ‘ FEES AND COST COMPENSATION
The fee for attorney’s services is calculated in accordance with the Tariff issued by the Croatian bar association.
At the first meeting, our law office tries to inform the client with the approximate foreseeable costs of providing legal services, which depends on how many and which legal actions need to be taken to achieve the desired goal.
A representation contract can also be concluded.
The amount of the lawyer’s fee depends of the value of the job that is the subject of representation, so for smaller values – lower amounts (points) are listed, and for higher values jobs – higher amounts (points) are listed.
EXAMPLE 1.
If the lawyer represents a client in court regarding things / rights / claims in the amount of HRK 90,000.00, then the lawyer is entitled to 100 points for each action in such a procedure (written submission, hearing) which means = HRK 1,000.00 (if the lawyer is in the VAT system this amount is increased by the corresponding VAT).
The tariff is based on the amounts of actions in points and the value of one point is HRK 10.00 (Tbr. 50. OT), with the remark that the party who loses the lawsuit pays the costs of the proceedings to the party that succeeded in that dispute.
In some types of proceedings, the amount is always fixed, regardless of the number of actions taken and/or hearings.
In criminal and misdemeanor matters, the amount of the lawyer’s fee depends of the range of the fine.
When a lawyer defends or represents more than one person in the same proceeding, he is entitled to a 10% increase of the tariff provisions for the second and each subsequent person – provided that this increase may not exceed 50% in total.
Providing legal aid by a lawyer may be contracted with a client in a lump sum (monthly) amount.
In some sort of law cases, attorneys may agree with the client on reward for their work in proportion to the success of the whole proceedings. The upper limit of the contracted percentage cannot exceed 30% of the total achieved success.
In certain cases, a precise amount of the cost may be presented to the client, and these are generally all undisputed matters in which there is no opposing party with a conflicting interest (eg if the legal service consists of taking action to establish a company or liquidate a company, or to form any contracts, wills, etc.)
In other cases, it is possible to present to the client the cost of a particular legal action, with a note that the number of actions also depends on other participants in the proceedings (counterparty activities, the way of work of an individual judge, etc.)
EXAMPLE 2.
If it is a court dispute, it can end after the lawsuit is filed in case the opposing party admits the lawsuit or if the court issue a default verdict in case the defendant is passive, but on the other hand, the dispute can last for months and years if a large number of witnesses needs to give statements, having to obtain documents, wait for a decision on appeals, etc.
But even in these cases, some predictable potential cost framework can always be estimated, ie give the client a projection for all potential outcomes.
As stated in the introduction, the Tariff contains the prices of attorneys’ services, as well as the amount of points for a particular action, depending on the type of procedure in question:
- criminal and misdemeanor proceedings
- civil action
- enforcement proceedings
- bankruptcy proceedings
- out-of-court proceedings
- land registry procedure
- administrative procedure and administrative dispute
- procedure for entry in the court register
- the procedure of protection of rights with the employer
- proceedings at the Constitutional Court
- for the composition of the contract, document, will
- for legal opinions
More about the above on the link:
