Judgment of the Court in Case C-395/21 | D.V. (Lawyers’ fees – Principle of an hourly rate)

Date of article: 12/01/2023

Daily News of: 16/01/2023

Country:  EUROPE

Author: Court of Justice of the European Union

Article language: en

Link: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2023-01/cp230010en.pdf

Languagues available: es de et en fr it lv lt nl pl pt ro

A term in a contract for the provision of legal services concluded between a lawyer and a consumer which sets the price on the basis of an hourly rate, without including any further details, does not satisfy the requirement of being drafted in plain intelligible language

The national court may restore the situation in which the consumer would have been in the absence of an unfair term, leaving the seller or supplier without any remuneration for the services provided

M.A., as a consumer, concluded five contracts for the provision of legal services for consideration with D.V., in her capacity as a lawyer. Each of those contracts provided that the fees were calculated on the basis of an hourly rate, fixed at €100 for each hour of consultation or of provision of legal services to M.A. D.V. provided legal services in 2018 and 2019 and issued bills for all the services provided in March 2019. When she did not receive all the fees claimed, D.V. brought an action before the Lithuanian court of first instance seeking an order that M.A. pay the sum of € 9 900 in respect of the legal services performed and € 194.30 in respect of the expenses incurred in the performance of the contracts. That court upheld D.V.’s application in part. The appeal brought by D.V. was dismissed by the appeal court. In 2020, D.V. brought an appeal on a point of law before the Supreme Court of Lithuania. (...)

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