And the maximum is set at 75,000 euros.

Yesterday, the Council of Ministers approved the amendment of the Royal Decree approving the tariff of fees for court attorneys. According to the Executive, this new regulation, which updates the content of Royal Decree 1373/2003, of November 7, “harmonizes the Spanish legal system with European regulations”.

The modification of this law has been previously criticized by many groups within the profession, such as the Bar Councils of Barcelona Galicia Valencia and the Bar Association of Madrid.

The proposal is clearly inadequate to the current reality, both from the procedural point of view and, above all, from the point of view of the provision of services for which it requires payment.

The Royal Decree establishes that the global amount of the fees accrued by a lawyer in a single matter, action or proceeding may not exceed 75 thousand euros. In addition, the tariff system governing the fees of attorneys at law may not set minimum limits for the amounts accrued in relation to the different professional actions carried out.

Also, the attorney’s services may be exceptional and subject to the approval of a judge. Remuneration for these exceptional cases would then exceed what is generally allowed by law for them to be adequately compensated.

The Government states that the new Royal Decree is based on the negotiation of the price of the service between the court attorney and his client, in an environment of free competition, without prejudice to the existence of a maximum tariff that serves to protect the consumer and the obligation of the court attorney to present a prior estimate to his client.