Fees and bar associations: why there are no scales and what the criteria for assessing costs are

How much does a divorce, an appeal or a due diligence cost? The question is common, but the answer cannot come from bar associations: the law prohibits them from recommending fees. They may only draw up indicative criteria for a specific purpose.

For a firm that sets its rates, negotiates with corporate clients or claims costs, it is worth being clear about what exactly the rule says.

The general rule: free fees

The General Statute of the Spanish Legal Profession, approved by Royal Decree 135/2021, establishes in its Article 26 that the amount of fees is agreed freely between the client and the legal professional.

There is therefore no official or minimum price. Each firm sets its fee policy and agrees it with the client.

The prohibition: no scales

Law 2/1974 of 13 February on Professional Associations, whose consolidated text is shown as updated to 2 August 2024, is blunt in its Article 14: professional associations and their bar organisations may not establish indicative scales or any other guidance, recommendation, guideline, rule or standard on professional fees.

The prohibition is broad. It is not limited to price tables: it reaches any recommendation or guidance on fees. The only exception is the one provided by the fourth additional provision.

The exception: assessment of costs and jura de cuentas

The fourth additional provision allows bar associations to draw up indicative criteria for the exclusive purposes of the assessment of costs and the jura de cuentas (fee-claim procedure) of lawyers.

That is, bar criteria exist, but have a limited use:

What it means for firms

When setting the rate

The firm cannot rely on a bar table to justify its price to the client, nor should it feel limited by it. The rate is its own decision, which is wise to document in the engagement letter, as the General Statute requires when regulating information on fees and costs. We explain it in the guide on individual legal practice.

When claiming costs

When the client obtains an order for costs in their favour, the fees claimed from the other party are assessed in the costs assessment. There the bar association's indicative criteria do come into play, and may differ from what the firm agreed with its client. It is wise to explain this to the client from the start: what they pay their lawyer and what they can recover in costs need not coincide.

In tenders and panels

In negotiations with large clients, who often demand hourly rates or fixed prices, the reference is the market and the agreement, not a scale. Firms taking part in public tenders for legal services must also take into account the rules of each procedure, such as those that will be discussed at the 1st ICAM Congress on Public Procurement.

Recommendations

1. Document the firm's fee policy and apply it consistently.
2. Record the price in the engagement letter, with the criteria for changes.
3. Inform the client of the difference between agreed fees and recoverable costs.
4. Do not use bar criteria as a commercial rate: their legal purpose is another.

On the engagement letter we have a position of our own, which we explain in the editorial "The engagement letter should be the rule". More analysis in Big law firms and lateral moves.