FAQ - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

All the office costs (secretariat, accommodation, …) are charged through a fixed amount and a fixed compensation of € 10.00 per written page and of € 12.00 per page of a legal document.

In addition to this the costs paid in advance by our office (court fees, bailiff fees, allowance per kilometre covered) are charged.

In each case the applied hourly rate for effective performances is discussed with you, taking into account the base rate determined per lawyer and lying between € 80.00 and € 125.00. Adjustments are possible and depend on the file’s difficulty, the urgency, and the result obtained…

At any time the attending lawyer can present his timesheet to you, it comprises the details of the performances rendered.

Litigation costs are in fact a fixed contribution for the lawyer’s costs and fees representing the party proven to be right (the Belgian Judicial Codes’s Art. 1022).

For specific reasons the judge may deviate from the base rates and within the legal limits take another amount  into consideration. This is applied amongst others for reasons related to:

• the losing party’s financial capacity, decreasing the amount of the contribution;
• the complexity of the case;
• the contribution for the party proven to be right, determined on a contractual basis;
• the situation’s apparent unreasonable character.

The litigation costs may at any time be re-claimed in civil law matters. In criminal law matters this is only the case in a limited number of situations.

The litigations costs were indexed and determined as follows by a Royal Decree of October 26th, 2007:

Article 1. The base rates, minimum rates and maximum rates of the litigation costs referred to in the Belgian Judicial Code’s Article 1022 were determined by this decision.

The rates were determined per instance.

No contribution is indebted in case of proceedings at a court where the case has been withdrawn from by a decision of the district court.

Neither shall there be paid a contribution in case the defendant or the summoned party in appeal, before registration of the case in the register, agrees to the claim and discharges himself of his obligations as to the capital amount, the interests and the costs.

Should the defendant or the summoned party in appeal, after registration in the register, agree to the claim and discharge himself of his obligations as to the capital amount, the interests and the costs, then the amount of the contribution is equal to one quarter of the base fee and cannot exceed € 1,000.00.

Article 2. Wtih the exception of the matters stipulated in article 4 of this decision the litigation costs for disputes about claims assessable in money is determined as follows:

For applying this article the amount of the claim is determined in accordance with the Belgian Judicial Code’s Articles 557 to 562 and 618 about the determination of the competence and the instance. In case the dispute is about the title of the maintenance allowance, a deviation is made from this Code’s Article 561 and the amount of the claim is calculated, in order to determine the litigation costs and based upon the annuity amount or twelve monthly instalments.

Art. 3. As far as disputes about claims not assessable in money are concerned the litigation costs’ base rate is € 1.320,00, the minimum rate is € 82,50 and the maximum rate is € 11.000,00.

Art. 4. Contrary to the Articles 2 and 3 the litigation costs’ base rates, minimum rates and maximum rates for jurisdiction as mentioned in the Belgian Judicial Code’s Aticles 579 and 1017, second paragraph, are determined as follows:

Art. 5. As to the claims presented in accordance with the Belgian Judicial Code’s Article 1340 the minimum rates mentioned in Article 2 are applied for the proceedings described in the Belgian Judicial Code’s Articles 1340 to 1343, §2.

Art. 6. Whenever a case is closed, rendering a judgment by default, and when no other party proven to be wrong ever appeared, the litigation costs’ amount is equal to the minimum rate.

Art. 7. No litigation costs are applied for jurisdiction aiming at legal aid.

Otherwise the fact that legal aid is being offered by no means devalues the determination of the contributions mentioned in the previous articles.

Art. 8. The base rates, minimum rates and maximum rates are linked to the consumption prices’ index number corresponding to 105.78 points (basis 2004). Each time the index number increases or decreases with 10 points, the amounts mentioned in this decision’s Articles 2 to 4 are being increased or decreased with 10 percent.

A value tariff is a fee tariff based on the dispute’s value. In first instance the following fee tariffs are applied:

- from € 0 to € 6,200: 15%
- from € 6,200 to € 50,000: 10%
- from € 50,000 to € 125,000: 8%
- from € 125,000 to 250,000: 6%
- above € 250,000: 4%

Both as far as the plaintiff and the defendant are concerned the fee is calculated based on the capital amount and on the interests.

In appeal the same tariff is applied for 50%.

Should you dispose of invoice conditions, in practice the amounts collected on top of the capital amount will be sufficient to cover our fees. In this case this means that our intervention is free of charge.