Advocates’ fee and methods of calculating IT

Abstract

The article reveals the essence of fee (remuneration) for the legal assistance provided by an advocate (the remuneration institution). First of all, the legal nature of an advocate’s fee is examined, its amount and payment are determined. The position being argued is that modern domestic legislation does not sufficiently regulate an advocate’s remuneration (honorarium), actually entrenching the provision according to which an advocate and a client independently determine the terms of an agreement on granting legal assistance, including those related to remuneration calculation and payment. To fulfil this aim there have been employed the methods which are typical of legal science. The study was conducted using the dialectic method of inquiring legal reality which provided an opportunity to analyze the multifaceted nature of the institution of remuneration for an advocate’s legal assistance (fees) in terms of the mechanism of emerging and resolving contradictions that exist in modern civil society and at the present stage of establishing the state based on the rule of law. The overall structure of the research was formed with the help of the system-structural method, this contributed to the comprehensive solving of the tasks set by the author. The formal-dogmatic method, which is one of the main methods involved in this work, enabled with the help of clarification and interpretation of the content of legal acts to first of all explore the essence of various ways of calculating the amount of an advocate’s fee. According to the substantiated conclusion, the main methods of calculating an advocate’s fee amount are (the hourly pay; the fixed amount of money; «success fee»; subscription service; a combined system (for example, when the advocate and the client arrange the fixed fee, and they also envisage the possibility to pay a certain additional percentage (in particular, of the value of a lawsuit)).