The BCU has set up a working group to reimburse the lawyer costs by a court

On March 30, the Bar Council of Ukraine considered a lawyer Illia Solod's application regarding the clarification on the average cost of the lawyer's work hour..

The need for such an explanation is motivated by new provisions of the procedural legislation, which provides for the reimbursement of a lawyer's fee at the expense of court fees. Thus, Part 3 of Art. 123 of the Economic Procedural Code refers to the costs associated with the case, the costs of professional legal assistance. The Code stipulates that the amount of payment for the services of an attorney must be commensurate with the complexity of the case and the work performed by the lawyer, the time spent by the lawyer, the volume of services and the price of the claim. At the same time, if the complexity of the case and the amount of work by the court can be determined on their own, the determination of the time will require additional proof. At the same time, in some cases, the author of the appeal notes, the time and importance of the case for a particular party is not provided by legislation. Therefore, the court may refuse to pay the appropriate legal costs.

«Such state of affairs creates an additional obligation for the participants in the case to justify the selection of a particular lawyer, leads to the risk of loss by the party in whose favor the decision was made, part of the actual costs incurred by the court», - argues his position the lawyer Solod.

He points out that the procedure for determining the remuneration for professional legal assistance provided by the Code contradicts the provisions of the relevant law on the Bar and the Rules of Advocate's Ethics. According to them, the fee is determined by the parties to the agreement on the provision of legal aid.

A similar conflict was created in the Code of Administrative Procedure and the Civil Procedural Code.  

"In view of the lack of unity in determining the costs of professional legal assistance in procedural law, the Law and Rules of Bar Ethics, the subjective approaches of participants in the trial, there is likely to be a dispute over the size of the fee in the future. The decisive evidence in such a dispute will be a court decision in favor of the client, which reduces the amount of payments for the provision of professional legal assistance, which in no way will help to ensure the guarantees of advocacy ", - said in an address to the BCU.

The lawyer Solod asks the BCU to explain the average cost of one hour spent by a lawyer on representation in court, of other professional assistance (preparation of a case for consideration, gathering of evidence, etc.), as well as the cost of services of a lawyer's assistant in relation to the minimum wage. The lawyer also asks to take into account such factors as the stage of the trial, the scope and the quality of the documents, the place of legal aid (Ukraine and foreign jurisdictions), the qualifications and experience of the lawyer, other factors.

The BCU has decided to set up a working group to which the author of the application should be included, as well as economists who can provide expert assessments regarding the pricing of lawyers' services.