Federal Lawyers' Fees Regulations
The Federal Lawyers' Fees Regulations (BRAGO) regulated the fees for the work of lawyers from 1957 to 2004. It was promulgated on July 26, 1957 as Art. VIII of the law amending cost regulations and replaced on July 1, 2004 by the Lawyers' Remuneration Act (RVG).
| Basic data | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Federal Fee Regulations for Lawyers |
| Short title: | Federal Lawyers' Fees Regulations |
| Previous title: | Fee schedule for lawyers |
| Abbreviation: | BRAGO |
| Type: | Federal law |
| Scope: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Legal matter: | Cost law |
| References : | 368-1 aF |
| Original version from: | July 7, 1879 ( RGBl. P. 176) |
| Entry into force on: | October 1, 1879 |
| New announcement from: | July 5, 1927 (RGBl. I p. 162) |
| Last revision from: | July 26, 1957 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 861, 907 ) |
| Entry into force of the new version on: |
October 1, 1957 |
| Last change by: |
Art. 2 para. 6 G of March 12, 2004 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 390, 404 ) |
| Effective date of the last change: |
June 1, 2004 (Art. 6 Paragraph 1 G of March 12, 2004) |
| Expiry: | July 1, 2004 (Art. 6 No. 4 G of May 5, 2004, Federal Law Gazette I p. 718, 850 ) |
| Please note the note on the applicable legal version. | |
BRAGO regulated the remuneration of lawyers' services across the country . It replaced the fee schedule for lawyers of July 7, 1879 and supplementary state law provisions.
Changes
The main progress made by BRAGO in comparison to the older legal provisions was the extensive introduction of procedural flat-rate fees in civil litigation as well as in the proceedings before the constitutional , administrative and financial courts . In all of these branches of law, remuneration according to BRAGO was made through the incurrence of litigation, negotiation, evidence and settlement fees.
The specialty of these procedural fees is that they arise from a mixed calculation. The calculation of the fee according to the course of the procedure and the value of the subject or value in dispute leads to the fact that the legal services are not adequately rewarded in cases of low subject values, and in some cases will not even outweigh the attorney's business costs. As a result, the lawyer is dependent on receiving remuneration in cases with high amounts in dispute, which at the same time compensates for these losses.
BRAGO also contains details about the due dates of the fees, the right to advance payments and the fee calculations. In this respect, the regulations of BRAGO take precedence over the provisions of the law of obligations.
In the course of the necessary adjustment of the BRAGO to the changing living conditions and in response to the increasing number of lawyers who offer their work on the market, the BRAGO was replaced on July 1, 2004 by the Lawyers' Remuneration Act (RVG), but remains for cases in which the order was issued before this point in time, continues to apply (see the transitional provision in § 61 RVG).
