How do the lawyers charge in Taiwan?

For those who encounter legal disputes for the first time, the key concern for finding a professional lawyer is the attorney's fee. However, the quotes from each law firm and lawyer will vary, which inevitably leads clients to doubt whether the lawyer's quote is too expensive or the fees are not transparent. Some clients even bargain with the lawyer in an attempt to significantly reduce the attprney's fee.

In reality, the lawyer's fee is mainly determined by the lawyer's quotation based on " how much time it takes to handle the case" and " the amount of the subject matter ". The quotation will naturally vary depending on the complexity of the case. Taking general civil and criminal litigation cases as an example, the lawyer's fee items can be roughly divided into three major parts: " consultation, commission, and post-compensation ".

1. Legal advice

Just like patients need to pay to register and communicate with doctors before going to the hospital for surgery, "legal consultation" allows the lawyer to directly discuss the case with the client, to analyze preliminary evidence, and to assess the difficulty of the case and the solution strategy before the lawyer decides to accept the case.

The current market price of lawyer consultation fees is NT$3,000-12,000 per hour. The lawyer's years of practice and experience as well as the complexity of the case will have an impact. If the lawyer decides to take the case after the consultation, most lawyers will agree to deduct the first consultation fee from the engagement fee (but if the client consults on the same case multiple times or the case is complicated, there might be exceptions).

Many people like to ask lawyers for free consultations when they first contact them, but we must remind you that not every lawyer is willing to accept free consultations (especially when meeting a lawyer for the first time). After all, lawyers are not only responsible for chatting with clients and building relationships during legal consultations. They also need to discuss the case with the client, clarify the main issues from the client's conversation and provide strategies to solve the problems, and further analyze the evidence presented by the client to assess whether there is room for strengthening the client's evidence.

Just like when you go to the hospital to make an appointment for a medical consultation, you would not ask the doctor to waive the registration fee. Paying the consultation fee during the consultation is also a basic respect for practicing lawyers.

If you are a low- to middle-income household or a citizen who cannot afford the consultation fee, it is recommended that you seek free legal advice provided by the Legal Aid Foundation, local city governments or legislators. Many lawyers will also arrange time to regularly provide legal advice to disadvantaged groups at these places on a voluntary basis.

However, except for the Legal Aid Foundation, which provides follow-up assistance in litigations, other free legal advice services generally do not provide follow-up assistance in writing petitions or litigation process. Free consultations often require citizens to make an appointment several days in advance or wait in line on site, so please do not wait until the last moment to do so. (In addition, there are many private organizations established under the name of legal aid, so please be careful when searching.)

2. Engagement

The engagement of a litigation lawyer can be divided into two types: "appearing in court" or "writing a pleading". Since the appointment of a lawyer is essentially a medium- to long-term cooperation, the fee is usually charged on a trial-by-trial basis, that is, the quotation standard is based on one trial stage of the litigation ( the investigation stage in the criminal procedure is also regarded as an independent trial level).

(1) Writing a pleading

If the case is relatively simple or the parties have a limited budget and hope to handle it by themselves as much as possible to save expenses, they can ask a lawyer to help "draft" professional legal pleadings. The lawyer will draft formal legal pleadinfs such as the complaint, the defense, the protest, and the appeal on behalf of the parties, and then the parties will submit them to the court and go to court by themselves to handle the case.

Most of the cost of writing a pleading is estimated to be " priced by the case ", ranging from NT$10,000 to 30,000, but some more complex legal documents may be "charged by hours", such as those involving foreign affairs, public works, translation, etc. Because lawyers do not need to appear in court to represent the parties in verbal debate, the fees for writing a pleading are generally slightly lower than those for engagement.

(2) Appearance in court

The purpose of engaging a lawyer to "appear in court" is not only to convey opinions to the judges for parties who are unable to attend the court for some reason, but also to defend on behalf of the client based on the lawyer's own expertise and confirm the questions raised by the judge in a timely manner. Since all statements in court will be recorded and used as the basis for the judgment in the future, the lawyer must conduct in-depth research on legal issues and fundamental facts before the court session. In addition to the quotation of the package trial system, some lawyers also accept one-time engagement to appear in court, and the fee for a single appearance is about NT$20,000.

3. Contingency fee

For cases with high amounts or complexities, lawyers usually charge a portion of the winning amount after quoting. However, according to Article 35, Paragraph 2 of the Code of Ethics for Lawyers, lawyers may not agree on a contigency fee for "family, criminal or juvenile cases" , so lawyers generally only agree on a contigency fee for civil property cases or commercial cases. The conditions for the contingency fee is generally read as below: "if a certain level of handling results is achieved, the client pays the lawyer a sum of money; or a certain percentage of the winning amount or the amount of execution shall be given to the lawyer."

According to Article 35, Paragraph 1 of the Code of Ethics for Lawyers, lawyers should clearly inform clients of the amount of their remuneration or the basis of calculation. Therefore, if a lawyer charges a contingency fee, the client may request that the lawyer clearly clarify the basis in the engagement contract.