Fees

The remuneration of your lawyer covers the intellectual or material services he has completed within the framework of your case, his fees and his outlays. The outlays represent the amount he has advanced on your behalf (legal fees, administrative fees, external collaborators fees, etc)

The method of payment can vary; it is usually based on the time spent on your case, but it can be lump-sum or partially depend on the result. The pact of quota litis, that is the convention according to which the remuneration of the lawyer is exclusively linked to the result (“no win no fee”) is forbidden by the Belgian law.

The hourly rate mainly varies in relation to the lawyer’s skills, the difficulty and the stakes of the case that you hand him or the emergency situation under which he has to intervene.

Unless a lump-sum remuneration is agreed, it is usually impossible to quantify in advance the amount of work that the lawyer will have to provide and, thus, the cost of the lawyer’s intervention. It mainly depends on the circumstances over which he has no control. Nevertheless, the lawyer will try to evaluate what his intervention will likely cost you and, considering this, he will examine with you whether to proceed or not.

More generally, the lawyer will inform you as to how his fees are established and provide advice on the possible need of establishing a provision in order to cover his first fees and duties.