FEES
Schedules for legal fees are not available in France. Generally, fees are billed on an hourly time rate which is multiplied by the time spent for rendering the requested services. The time rate can freely be agreed upon. Before the execution of the requested services, the signing of a written fee agreement is mandatory in France. Please note that we may accept a new file under the condition preceding a sufficient advance payment on fees and costs.
Disbursements for postage and telecommunication services as well as photocopies, travel expenses, translations, fees of local correspondents and all other legal taxes are charged separately.
All invoices contain a detailed memorandum of rendered services indicating the date and the charged time. Thus, billed fees are fully transparent for the client.
Special information about litigation in France:
In France each party pays its own lawyer. The winning party is not entitled to claim reimbursement to the losing party. However, French courts may discretionally rule that the losing party must pay a lump sum to the winning party. In practice, the allocated amount doesn’t cover the whole fees involved.
Professional Liability Insurance:
In litigation matters French lawyers only have a duty of general care and not obliged to achieve a certain result. All lawyers admitted in France have to be covered by a professional liability insurance policy. However, the insurance cover is limited per file and damage. We invite you to contact us for further inquiries. In certain cases, it may be necessary to cover exceeding risks by signing an extension of the insurance policy.