Legal fees

There is no flat fee for requesting our legal representation. Each legal case is different and all fees are determined according to the individual services involved.

All billing is based on the fee structure as determined by the German Law of Lawyer Compensation (Rechtsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz or RVG), or, alternatively, on a previously agreed-upon hourly rate.

When fees are determined according to the RVG, lawyer fees for all general services outside of court usually amount to a handling fee of 1.3 based on the “Amount in Dispute“ of the case in question. (In our legal dictionary, you can read up on how the “Amount in Dispute“ is calculated.)

Any additional legal services will incur additional fees, which we will be happy to discuss with you during our consultation.

If you would like to get a basic idea of the legal fees involved, please refer to the current Fee Chart based on the RVG.

If a client is financially unable to pay for typically occurring legal fees on his or her own, we will be happy to submit – upon the client’s request – a proposal to the court that legal fees be covered by the state. (For details, please refer to our legal dictionary.)

The client will have to prove to the court that he/she is unable to afford a lawyer at this time and will need to submit complete documentation of all sources of the client’s income as well as all monthly expenses. If the request is granted, the state will pay for all legal fees and court fees.

Here you will find the complete application form with tips for filling in the form.

Even for a consultation, fees are calculated according to the RVG. For an initial, one-time consultation which will not require any further activity on the part of the lawyer afterwards, the RVG mandates a flat fee to be charged. This fee cannot exceed a certain legally determined amount.

If, after the initial consultation, you may decide to request additional legal services from us, we will take the initial flat fee you paid into account when calculating payment for additional services so that you will not pay twice for items relating to the same legal case.

In addition, if certain conditions of personal financial hardship are met, you may be eligible for public assistance in order to cover legal and court fees. We will be happy to advise you.