Before we recommend legal proceedings, we have:

• prepared your claim and the related documents, checked them for enforceability (statute of limitations) and completeness,

• wrote to your debtors several times: by letter, e-mail, WhatsApp, set deadlines and made phone calls,

• dealt with the evasions, assurances and objections of the debtors,

• have obtained information about your debtors, checked financial data, insolvency, publications on the Internet, etc. or offered to obtain inexpensive creditworthiness information,

• negotiated and concluded legally secure instalment payment agreements, monitored and disbursed payments.
  

How expensive is a lawsuit in Germany?

Our new fee-calculator works up to an amount in dispute/claim of 500.000,00 EUR and will be extended continously!

Our  fees for a 1st instance lawsuit in Germany are calculated. These are regularly our minimum fees in full court proceedings.
Court fees are included! see Gerichtskosten.
The use is without any guarantee! It is no offer and not binding in any way. We will communicate the exact fees for your individual case on your request.

Here you find the legal table for Court and Lawyer's Fees (extract), Year 2023, Table

As a rule, this pays for the entire proceedings.

The fees stated below are incurred in court proceedings in any case.

In individual cases, a further fee in a similar amount as stated must be added. We will inform you of this. Fees already paid will generally be credited against the total amount.

Please note that you will have to pay the fees indicated here in any case as an advance payment for court proceedings.

Not included: expenses for copies, translations, expert fees, travel expenses (court), court hearing (150,00 EUR-350,00 EUR), costs and fees of enforcement proceedings (like bailiff, seizure of bank accounts etc.).

If the debtor does not react to our request for payment (dunning letter/reminders) or telephone calls and all measures taken to force the debtor to payment turned out with no result, the institution of court proceedings are recommended by lack of other possibilities to force the debtor to payment out of court.

German courts always require an advance payment of the court fees. Otherwise the court will reject any action. Basically in Germany court and lawyer fees are related to a legal table / statutory fee schedule (see below). Therefore this scale of fees is binding by law.
But we would like to point out that in Germany the unsuccessful party in court proceedings has to pay all fees and costs of the court and lawyer fees by Law.

Therefore the debtor has to take over and to refund all fees (including court fees) in case of a judgment to the favour of the client.

German Law Firms are subject to the German federal law regarding Lawyers Fees (Rechtanwaltsvergütungsgesetz, RVG). Success fees (contingency fees) are basically not legal in Germany and Law Firms are legally bound to charge at the RVG. It is absolutely common to ask for a retainer. As a matter of course it is in general possible to find an individual agreement, especially in case of multiple debts (no retainer) or the take over of the complete claim management.

Fees in court proceedings - conditions and offers

Before starting any court proceedings we request for your consent and try to get information about the solvency of the debtor.

Please note that we are able to represent your interests all over Germany. Our Lawyers are called to the bar at every court in Germany (except BGH).

We kindly ask for your understanding, that besides our offers in general court fees cannot be covered by our office, meaning that the client has to provide us with the court fees in advance. The plaintiff has to pay court fees in advance.

The court and lawyer fees relate to a legal table, which is binding by law. The amount depends on the amount in controversy (amount of claim). You also find explanations how to calculate the fees in your case.

Besides the legal table we offer better conditions to keep your fees small:

Often it is possible to achieve a writ of execution/judgment and to collect the debt without investing regular fees in total (in legal dunning proceedings, court summons, "order to pay a debt").

Special offers in court proceedings:

We can check if it is possible that you pay no fees at all especially the case meets the following conditions:

• the debt is not contested (no legal relevant objections out of court like defect of goods, bad quality, breach of contract, partial delivery, malperformance, late delivery, counterclaims etc)
• we dispose of a valid postal address and all contact details of the debtor (phone, fax, mobile, email, website) are available and it is possible to contact the debtor in fact
• we dispose of all documents like invoices, delivery notes (POD, proof of delivery), correspondence
• signed Letter of Authorisation (PoA)
• the debtor still is solvent due to our prior investigations.

Please ask for your individual offer for free!

We reserve to claim for the total of the legal fees if the debtor lodges an appeal against a court order or contests the debt in court proceedings (defect of goods, malperformance, late delivery, breach of contract, counterclaims etc.). 

We will inform you about the total of fees at an early stage or on request. Certainly you can decide not pursue the claim further on at any time.