Lawyer fees are generally borne by the parties themselves, and the defendant may also be required to bear them under circumstances stipulated by law.
According to the principle of freedom of contract, as long as both parties agree in the contract that attorney fees will be borne by the losing party, claims for attorney fees will generally be supported in lawsuits or arbitrations. Therefore, when drafting the contract, the parties to the contract can list attorney's fees as liquidated damages, and even stipulate in detail the method and standard for bearing attorney's fees. When suing, the plaintiff must submit the entrustment contract signed with the law firm and the attorney fee invoice issued by the law firm as evidence of payment of attorney fees. But the specific amount of support depends on the judge’s discretion. Depending on the nature of the case, courts will often award “reasonable” attorney’s fees rather than full costs.
According to the typical cases and guiding opinions of Chinese courts, in the following nine types of cases, it is clear that the losing party shall bear the reasonable attorney fees of the winning party:
1. Legal aid cases;
2. Copyright infringement cases;
3. Trademark infringement cases;
4. Patent infringement cases;
5. Unfairness Competition cases;
6. Cases in which creditors exercise their right to cancel in contract disputes;
7. Loan security rights litigation cases;
8. Personal injury compensation , reputation infringement, traffic accident cases:
9. Commercial arbitration cases. At the same time, both parties have clearly agreed in the contract that attorney fees shall be borne by the breaching party, and its claims for attorney fees will generally be supported by the court during prosecution or arbitration.
2. Litigation attorney fee standards
1. Answer legal consultation.
(1) If there is no property relationship, each item shall not exceed 100 yuan;
(2) If there is a general property relationship, each item shall not exceed 200 yuan;
(3) Negotiation fees involving commercial property relationships.
2. Write legal documents.
The fees for writing litigation documents and producing other legal documents will be negotiated between the law firm and the client.
3. Handle criminal cases.
(1) Each case shall not exceed 2,000 yuan during the investigation stage;
(2) Each case shall not exceed 3,000 yuan during the prosecution stage;
(3) Each case For first-instance cases, the amount shall not exceed 4,000 yuan;
(4) If a plaintiff participates in a lawsuit as a plaintiff in a criminal private prosecution case or as an agent of a victim in a public prosecution case, and no property relationship is involved, the amount shall not exceed 5,000 yuan for each case. Fees related to property relations shall be charged according to the standards of civil cases;
(5) As an agent in civil cases incidental to criminal cases, the fees shall be reduced according to the standards of civil cases.
3. When are the attorney fees paid?
There are generally two ways to pay attorney fees. The first is prepayment, and attorney fees are paid when signing the agency contract. The second risk attorney is paid post-pay, and the attorney's fees can be paid at the conclusion of the case. The legal fees for contingency representation are relatively high, and the specific details can be negotiated with the lawyer. Lawyer fees have the following characteristics:
1. Lawyers should collect fees uniformly in the name of the law firm and are not allowed to collect lawyer fees privately.
2. Lawyer fees are different from case handling expenses. Necessary expenses incurred by the lawyer in handling entrusted matters must still be borne by the client. Such as transportation, accommodation, and forensic appraisal fees.
3. Attorney’s fees are different from litigation fees. Attorney's fees are civil agency fees based on a client relationship, and attorney's fees are mandatory fees based on filing a lawsuit in court. Attorney fees are negotiable, but litigation fees are not.
The above is the relevant content about "whether the defendant can be required to pay attorney fees." It can be seen from the above that legally, after signing an entrustment contract, the relevant attorney fees shall be paid by the client, unless the law expressly stipulates that the defendant can be required to bear it.
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