Legal fees in court proceedings

If the debtor does not react to our request for payment (dunning letter/reminders) or telephone calls and all measures taken to force the debtor to payment turned out with no result, the institution of court proceedings are recommended by lack of other possibilities to force the debtor to payment out of court.

It is to point out that the court requires for an advance payment of the court fees. Otherwise the court will reject any action. The court fees are related to a legal table. Therefore this scale of fees is binding by law.

German Law Firms are subject to the German federal law regarding Lawyers Fees (Rechtanwalts- vergütungsgesetz, RVG). Success fees (contingency fees) are not legal in Germany and Law Firms are legally bound to charge at the RVG. It is absolutely common to ask for a retainer. As a matter of course it is in general possible to find an individual agreement, especially in case of multiple debts (no retainer) or the take over of the complete claim management.

The amount of the court fees depends on the sum in dispute (amount in controversy, amount of the claim). For instance the court fees for a claim of 10.000,00 EUR are amounting to 588,00 EUR and for 20.000,00 EUR up to 864,00 EUR.

Important: to initiate court proceedings the plaintiff has to pay 3 (court) fees in advance. The following schedule shows the total fees for the court (3 fee).

• To estimate fees in court proceedings you can add the amounts of the red marked columns of the legal table below.
• Nevertheless we can offer favourable and competitive conditions of Lawyer fees on your request.

In court proceedings Lawyer's/Attorney's fees are amounting as follows: for initiating/institution and performing/conducting court proceedings a German Lawyer is entitled to charge a 1,3 fee (initiating proceedings) and a 1,2 fee (conducting of proceedings, court hearing) related to the legal table like performed in the schedule mentioned below. In prelegal proceedings the Lawyer is regularly entitled to claim for 1,3 fee for his work (the legal range is from 0,5 - 2,5) and 1,5 fee in case he managed an agreement (f.i. instalment agreement) with the debtor.

Here you find the legal table for Court and Lawyer's Fees (extract).
For court proceedings please add up the amounts of the red marked columns!

Here you find an Java-Applet for accounting the total risk of court proceedings based on the legal table for Court and Lawyers Fees (the applet is only available in German).

Therefore you can calculate the Lawyer's/Attorney's fees based on the legal table (RVG): In consequence you are able to minimize the fees if you mandate our office because we will arrange an agreement.

• Streitwert = sum in dispute, amount in controversy, Your claim in EUR
• "Ergebnis" means the outcome of court proceedings - in case you succeed only to a less amount (f.e. 10.000,00 EUR instead of 12.000,00 EUr of your claim) 
• Please mark - for worst case examination - that each party ("Kläger/Beklagter") is represented by a Lawyer ("Anwalt") in court proceedings
• "Einigung" means the amount of an agreement found at the court
• In your calculation you have to deduct the V.A.T. ("MwSt.").
• "Anwaltsgebühren" means the fees of the attorneys of both party
• "Gerichtsgebühren" means court fees
• "Gesamtkosten" means the total risk of proceedings (worst case)
• If you mark "Berufung" costs and fees of the 2. instance (court of appeal) are shown

:

Anwaltskanzlei Feinen
D-50677 Köln
0049-221-16844589 Tel.
0049-221-16844619 Fax

Our E-mail addresses:

kanzlei(a)rechtsanwalt-feinen.de
debtcollection(a)gmx.net

Please note that we are able to represent your interests all over Germany. Our Lawyers are called to the bar at every court in Germany (except BGH).

We claim our fees from the debtor. Therefore we claim for payment of the principal claim, interest, costs and our fees.

The guiding principle of our office in debt-collection is to have the debtor cover our fees. In Germany the debtor is obliged by law to pay all fees and costs of in- and out-of-court matters, if he is in delay of payment, in case of violation of a contract or if he is defeated in a law-suit (successful court proceedings).

As Lawyer's we are entitled to claim our fees from the debtor. Therefore our special service is that we do not charge the client for any fees for prelegal proceedings.

In case of payments of the debtor (esp. instalments) we firstly deduct our fees and costs and pay out all exceeding amounts to the client. When the debt is paid in total the client obtains the principal claim, interest and event. the advance he paid to us (f.e. for court fees).

If the debt is not paid in total because it is not possible to enforce the total of the debt anymore (the debtor is not solvent any more, no assets to enforce in) or an agreement about the amount of the debt is concluded the client obtains all payments exceeding our legal fees.

If there is a proposal to pay a flat sum to settle the total claim the debtor regularly would have to pay this amount plus our fees or all additional costs. In general this is not the intention of the debtor: he proposed to settle the total of the claim by payment of a fixed amount don't mind whether this amount includes Court fees, Lawyer's fees, costs of the client or the Lawyer. This is the character of such a proposal.

Therefore the client has to keep in mind that the Lawyer is to be paid and that he has to bear the fees by deduction from the agreed amount.

Hence, in case of an agreement it is to consider to heighten the total amount to include our fees.

Therefore we have to reserve to charge our fees In case of 1. necessary court proceedings and 2. the debtor appeals to the court or raises legal objections in court proceedings (like defective goods, delay in performance, malfeasance, malperformance …) or 3. if it is obvious that we cannot cover our fees by the debtor because of lack of assets to enforce in. The same applies if the debtor refuses to pay our fees and the client does not wish to collect them further on from the debtor by legal means.

German Law Firms are subject to the German Federal Law regarding Lawyers fees (Rechtanwaltsvergütungsgesetz, RVG, http://bundesrecht.juris.de/rvg/index.html ). The amount of the fees depends on the amount in controversy (amount of the claim). The fees are related to a legal table/schedule. Here you can find the legal table: http://www.brak.de/seiten/pdf/RVG/Gebuehrentabelle.pdf. The same applies for the court fees which are subject to the Federal Law regarding Court Fees.

It is absolutely common to ask for a retainer.

All costs and fees are basically to recover from the debtor in case we obtain a judgment to your favour. It is a matter of enforcement possibilities and proceedings to cover the debt in fact.