Lawyers' Remuneration Act

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Basic data
Title: Law on the remuneration
of
lawyers
Short title: Lawyers' Remuneration Act
Abbreviation: RVG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Cost law
References : 368-3
Issued on: May 5, 2004
( BGBl. I p. 718, 788 )
Entry into force on: July 1, 2004
Last change by: Art. 2 G of June 25, 2020
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 1474, 1477 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		June 30, 2020
(Art. 5 G of June 25, 2020)
GESTA : C123
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The Rechtsanwaltsvergütungsgesetz (short RVG ) since 1 July 2004 in Germany, the legal basis for the settlement of the remuneration of lawyers .

History and rationale

On July 1, 2004, the RVG replaced the previously applicable regulations of the Federal Lawyers' Fees Regulations (BRAGO).

With the RVG, the legislator pursued the goal of making cost and remuneration law simpler and more transparent. It is intended to create incentives for lawyers to provide their clients with more support in out-of-court settlement of disputes in order to reduce the workload of the courts. In addition, the amount of the remuneration should be based more than before on the scope and difficulty of the legal work.

Fee amount

The statutory fee rates for lawyers, which - apart from minor changes as part of the changeover to the euro - have remained unchanged since 1994, were not increased in 2004 either. Rather, there should be an increase in remuneration due to the changed fee structure. According to the Federal Ministry of Justice , the remuneration of lawyers increased by 14 percent through the enactment of the RVG. Many legal protection insurers, on the other hand, assume that the remuneration will increase by more than 20 percent.

In August 2013, a fee increase of around 19% came into effect. The federal government had previously decided on August 29, 2012 the draft of a 2nd law to modernize the law on costs (2nd KostRMoG). The law was discussed in the Bundestag at the end of January 2013. On March 13, 2013, an expert hearing took place in the legal committee of the Bundestag. At the beginning of April, according to media reports, there was also a secret meeting at which federal and state politicians from all parties agreed to implement the law swiftly and to increase both lawyers' fees and court costs even more than originally planned. The Federal Council referred the law to the Mediation Committee on June 7, 2013. This met on June 26, 2013 and drew up a mediation proposal that provided for an even greater increase in court costs. The proposal was then passed by the Bundestag on June 27, 2013; the Federal Council approved on July 5, 2013. The law came into force on August 1, 2013, one day after its promulgation in the Federal Law Gazette.

Changes to RVG / BRAGO

The main differences between the RVG and the BRAGO are:

  • Higher remuneration of lawyers for out-of-court dispute resolution
  • Lower remuneration of lawyers for taking evidence in court
  • Lower remuneration of lawyers in the case of divorce by mutual agreement
  • Higher remuneration of lawyers in criminal defense and representation in certain fine proceedings

In order to approximate and equate the settlement of attorney's fees, the RVG was divided into two parts, similar to the Court Fees Act. The RVG consists of the legal part with the general regulations and a remuneration list, in which the respective facts are regulated for which fees are incurred.

Demarcation

For lawyer notaries , if they do not work as a lawyer but as a notary , the regulation of fees in the Court and Notary Fees Act applies , not the RVG.

Structure of the RVG

The RVG applies according to § 1 RVG for the legal work of lawyers. The same applies to members about a lawyer GbR or a partnership .

The RVG is divided into nine sections, followed by the remuneration schedule as Annex 1.

Regulations of the RVG

  • The first section of the RVG regulates the fee system.
  • The second section contains fee regulations if the fees are based on the value of the item. In particular, § 13 RVG contains the calculation formula for the value fees.
  • The third section defines what are the same matter, different or special matters. Accordingly, fees for an activity are only charged once or several times.
  • The fourth section determines the value of the subject in principle and for individual proceedings.
  • Section five deals with fees for out-of-court advice and representation. There in § 34 RVG in particular the instruction to work towards a remuneration agreement and the determination of the maximum initial consultation fee.
  • The sixth section deals with a. with proceedings before the constitutional courts and the ECJ.
  • The seventh section contains regulations for flat-rate fees in criminal and administrative fines for special cases.
  • The eighth section regulates cases of the assignment of lawyers, such as public defenders, with the value regulations according to § 13 RVG which differ from Section 49 RVG.
  • The ninth section closes with transitional and final provisions .

Regulations of the remuneration schedule

The remuneration list (VV) attached as Annex 1 to Section 2 (2) RVG contains most of the actual fee facts .

The remuneration schedule is divided into seven parts:

  • Part 1 regulates so-called general fees , in particular the settlement fee .
  • Part 2 regulates the fees for extrajudicial activities including representation in administrative proceedings . The legal business fee is central in this part .
  • Part 3 regulates the representation in civil matters, proceedings of the public-law jurisdictions, proceedings according to the Prison Act also in connection with § 92 of the Youth Courts Act and similar proceedings . The procedural fee and the appointment fee are particularly important for these judicial activities .
  • Part 4 concerns criminal matters . The procedural and appointment fees are also central elements here. In addition, unlike BRAGO, the remuneration list in criminal and fines matters also includes a basic fee .
  • Part 5 concerns fines . Similar to criminal matters, the main fee claims also arise here for basic, procedural and appointment fees.
  • Part 6 concerns other procedures .
  • Part 7 regulates the expenses .

RVG fee types

The RVG is based on two forms of calculation for the amount of the fees. There are fees and charges that depend on the value of the item.

Amount fees

In the case of fee fees, the amount to be included in euros is specified in the fee schedule. So-called maximum amount fees indicate a framework in euros.

According to amount fees, billing is mainly carried out in criminal law and social law. There are for certain activities - e.g. B. the perception of an appointment before a certain court - a framework within which the fee is set depending on the duration and difficulty.

Set fees

Fees that depend on the value of the object are referred to as rate fees or frame rate fees. Either a fixed rate or a range of rates is specified in the remuneration schedule. Section 13 RVG determines how high a rate (i.e. a 1.0 fee) is depending on the value of the item. Accordingly, the corresponding fee can be calculated depending on the fee rate.

Item value

Section 23 RVG determines as a general value regulation, according to which the object valueis based. In court proceedings, the value of the item is determined according to the value regulations applicable to court fees. These areregulatedin sections 39 to 60 GKG . Sections 3 to 9 of the ZPO apply on a subsidiary basis.

Calculation of fees

In civil law, the amount of the remuneration is based on the value that the dispute has for the client (so-called object or value in dispute ). In the case of a payment claim, according to Section 4 (1) ZPO in conjunction with Section 23 RVG, this will usually be the amount of the claim without interest and ancillary costs. Based on the value of the object, a simple fee is determined using the table of values ​​in accordance with Appendix 2 to Section 13 RVG. For each activity, the lawyer can now determine a factor for the activities performed using the remuneration list (VV). The factor for filing an action according to No. 3100 VV is 1.3, the factor for out-of-court representation according to No. 2300 VV between 0.5 and 2.5 fees.

Compensation area

The fees cover the entire activity of the lawyer from the assignment to the settlement of the matter ( Section 15 RVG) including general business costs such as office rental, staff costs or the costs of office supplies. In addition to the fees, the lawyer can only charge certain expenses listed in Part 7 of the remuneration schedule . These include, for example, the fees for postal and telecommunications services (postage for written submissions, telephone calls, fax charges) or travel expenses for attending an external appointment.

Jurisprudence

Since July 1, 2006, the area of ​​remuneration for extrajudicial activities has been deregulated. Accordingly, there has been scope for negotiation between the parties in this area since then. The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court has considered advertising with a flat fee of 20 euros including VAT for out-of-court legal advice for consumers to be permissible.

literature

  • Wolfgang Hartung , Herbert P. Schons, Horst-Reiner Enders: RVG. Comment. 1st edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-60449-2 .
  • Horst-Reiner Enders: RVG for beginners. 15th edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-61895-6 .
  • Hans-Jochem Mayer: Developments on the Lawyers' Remuneration Act 2007–2011. In: NJW . 22/2011, p. 1563.
  • Julia Bettina Onderka: Attorney fees in traffic matters , 5th edition. German Lawyers Publishers & Institute of Lawyers, Bonn. ISBN 978-3-8240-1364-7

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry into force of the amendments to the RVG through the 2nd Cost Law Modernization Act of 23 July 2013 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2586 )
  2. ↑ Current reports from the Bundestag (hib) ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 13th March 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundestag.de
  3. ↑ Current announcement on RVG reform on RVG-News.de , April 15, 2013.
  4. ↑ OLG Stuttgart, judgment of December 28, 2006 , Az. 2 U 134/06, full text.