Ministry of Justice Order of the Ministry of Justice of the Peoples Republic of China No. 87 The Procedure Rules on the Charging of Law Firms, deliberated and adopted at the executive meeting of the Ministry of Justice on March Zhang Fusen, Minister of the Ministry of Justice March 19th, 2004 Procedure Rules on the Charging of Law Firms Article 1 With a view to regulating the charging acts of law firms, the present Rules are hereby formulated in accordance with the relevant Article 2 The charging items, charging standards and charging ways of a law firm shall be carried out in conformity with the Interim Measures Article 3 Law firms shall adhere to the principle of legality, openness, fairness, and consistency through negotiation for their charging of Article 4 Where a law firm charges fees through negotiation or by hour, it shall carry it out in line with the scope as provided for in Article Article 5 The lawyers service charge shall be collected unifiedly by law firms. No lawyer may charge any fee from the clients without permission. Article 6 Law firms shall publicize the charging items, charging standards and charging ways for lawyers services by posting, printing service Article 7 After accepting the entrustment, a law firm shall conclude charging contracts with the clients or specify charging clause in the entrustment A charging contract shall cover the following contents: charging items, ways and standards, amount or proportion of charges, ways Article 8 A law firm shall charge lawyers service fees in line with the ways of charging and amount or proportion of charges as concluded in Article 9 A law firm shall charge lawyers service fees directly from the clients. Where the charges are paid by the undertaking lawyer as the Article 10 A law firm shall issue legal bills to the clients in time when charging lawyers service fees from them. Article 11 Law firms shall conduct unified management on the entrustment contract, charging contract, charging bills, seals and the relevant Article 12 In accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Lawyers Service Charge, where the Article 13 Where a law firm on behalf of the clients pays fees for identification, appraisal, or translation, fees charged by the peoples courts Article 14 When a law firm charges fees in advance for business trip as needed for a lawyer to handle a case in a different place, it shall provide An undertaking lawyer shall not in private charge fees for business trip from the clients for handling a case in a different place. Article 15 Law firms shall supervise the pre-collection of the fees for business trip of the undertaking lawyers for their handling of a case After completing the matters entrusted, the undertaking lawyer shall submit the effective certificates of bills for use of fees and Where after auditing, the law firm deems that the items and standards of expenditure are not appropriate, the expenditure shall be Article 16 Where after completing the entrusted matters, a law firm shall settle the fees paid in advance with the clients for business trip Article 17 A law firm may, upon the approval of the relevant departments, establish a special account for depositing the contract money, enforcement A law firms shall strictly administer the special account, and prevent the risk. The payment of funds in the special account must Article 18 In case the clients do have difficulty in economy, law firms may reduce the amount of lawyers service charge or postpone the payment Article 19 No law firms may canvass business by using illegal ways of charging, nor may they give any discount to the clients by any means or Article 20 Where a law firm has any dispute with the clients due to charging fees, they shall solve it through negotiation. In case they cannot Article 21 A law firm shall be supervised and inspected by the local competent price department or administrative department of justice for its Article 22 Where a law firm and their lawyers violate the present Rules, the administrative department of justice and the lawyers associations Article 23 The present Rules shall come into force as of May 1st, 2004. |
Ministry of Justice
2004-03-19