Minutes of Professional Fees in the Lawyer/Client Relationship

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Article 14 of Law 25/2009, of 22 December (which modifies Law 2/1974, of 13 February, on Professional Associations), states that “Professional Associations and their associative organisations may not establish indicative scales or any other orientation, recommendation, guideline, norm or rule on professional fees”.

Lawyers are free to agree with their clients the amount or the way of calculating the remuneration for their professional services, always respecting the rules of free competition. Therefore, the Bar Associations cannot under any circumstances set the prices for the services provided by the Lawyer, and the freedom of the Lawyer to set the remuneration for the professional work provided must prevail in all cases.

The Criteria of the Madrid Bar Association, which include the guidelines reflected in the opinions on fees issued in response to a court order, have the sole purpose of complying with the obligations that the procedural laws impose on the Bar Associations, but do not in any way constitute a recommendation for member lawyers with regard to the fees for professional services provided.

With that in mind, the Query Service of the Fee Department cannot inform a member of the public about the minutes of fees formulated by their lawyer. In any case, you can resort to ICAM Mediation as a way to try to resolve possible disputes that may have arisen between lawyer and client, due to disagreement on the matter of the lawyer’s fees.

For more information on Mediation in matters of fees, you can contact mediaICAM, the Conflict Resolution Centre of this Association,
through its website (www.mediaicam.es),
by email (mediación@icam.es),
or by phone (917 889 380 – Option 8).