The fees are set by reference to the rules imposed by the French-speaking Order of Lawyers of the Brussels Bar. The client is always entitled to ask for clarifications and justifications by contacting the lawyer to whom he has entrusted the case.
The fees pay for the work of the lawyer itself: consultations, telephone interviews, meetings, expert opinions, hearings, study of cases, research, preparation of court notes, drafting of requests, citations, conclusions and other procedural documents , Appearances at hearings for postponement, default judgment or pleadings, the various procedures and services outside the firm, at the Palais de Justice and any other work performed by the lawyer in the context of the management of the case.
The various services are briefly described in a summary sheet with an indication of the actual time spent on them, including the travel or waiting time that these services required.
Unless otherwise agreed, fees will be charged at a basic hourly rate set during the first consultation, between 145.00 euros and 300.00 euros, depending, in particular, on the length of service and experience of the lawyer. , the nature of the case, its complexity and its degree of urgency.
The lawyer remains, throughout the case, at the disposal of his client to provide him with all the desired information regarding the financial terms of his intervention.
The costs relating to the file concern:
- Opening of the file: – € 125 – namely encoding of the file in the various computer files, the constitution of the file itself and all the operations necessary for the archiving and the mandatory keeping of the archives for five years
- Correspondence, namely the number of letters sent by the firm: – 14 € / page
- The typing of the work carried out by the secretariat, namely requests, conclusions, notes and other typed texts: – 14 € / page
- Faxes: – 12 € / page
- Registered mail costs, – cost price
- Telephone charges: – package
- Photocopies: –25 € / page
- Travel costs, depending on the number of kilometers traveled and counted: – 60 € / km outside Brussels and – 10 € / trip to Brussels)
Miscellaneous costs, recognized at a flat rate of 10% of the above costs. They include all costs which do not fall into the categories indicated above and which may vary from one file to another without them being easily isolated in a global accounting, namely, the costs relating to the bookkeeping, civil registry search costs, fiscal stamps, population certificates, business register searches, etc…. the accounting management costs, namely all the services necessary to record the accounting operations relating to the file, in particular the establishment of the file file, the execution of transfers and money transfers, … the secretarial costs, namely all the services provided by the secretariat for the file (filing correspondence, preparing files for hearings, opening mail, inserting and posting mail, scheduling appointments, etc.)
Legal costs, these are all costs advanced by the firm such as court fees, bailiff fees, copying fees for judgments, orders, judgments or files, costs notary, translation costs.
Expertise or other costs are to be paid directly by the client to the bailiff, the registry, the expert etc.
Payment Terms : Requests for provisions, statements of costs and intermediate and final fees are payable in accordance with the provisions of the law of 2 August 2002 which provides in particular for their payment within 30 days of receipt of the invoice and the application of office of default interest at the legal rate without formal notice in the event of non-payment.
Third party payment : The customer acknowledges having been informed that certain insurance policies are likely to cover all or part of the costs and fees. In the event that such an insurance policy has been taken out, the lawyer, if informed by the client, will contact the relevant insurance company to reimburse the client for the costs and fees paid by the client. to the lawyer or to pay the costs and fees to the lawyer. However, it is agreed that the lawyer works for the client and not for the insurance company.