Each of us can get into a difficult situation in which you cannot do without the help of a lawyer. He, as a representative of your interests, will provide you with the necessary legal support and protection, seeking arguments in your favor.
To formalize your relationship as a client and an executor, you will need to correctly carry out the process of drawing up a contract with a lawyer. You need to remember that you may not know the intricacies of the law, so it is for you, as the second party to the contract, to be especially vigilant before signing it.
What is an agreement?
Having finally decided on your intention to cooperate, you and the lawyer will fix it in an agreement on the provision of legal services (or business) in writing. On the basis of this document, the lawyer draws up a warrant and enters into this case, guided by his procedural rights. This also applies to the specifics of a lawyer drafting a contract of sale.
The agreement will include conditions for paying for a lawyer.
They will be considered completed when payment is made to the cashier of the law office (or education), and you must receive a payment document in your hands. From that moment on, a lawyer can provide you with all the assistance provided for by law: consultations, clarification of legislation, legally significant actions in your defense.
An agreement is a bilateral agreement concluded in writing. It can be either paid (paid) or free. The latter occurs when judicial or law enforcement agencies appoint a lawyer for someone, as well as in special cases.
The client must be informatively savvy
Some points when drawing up a contract with a lawyer, it is necessary for each client to know:
- The contract should indicate the exact amount of money that you pay for providing you legal services.
- A lawyer differs from a lawyer by the powers fixed at the legislative level, by virtue of which he has the right to protect interests in civil and criminal cases at all stages. This also applies to aspects of the activities of a lawyer in the preparation of a contract of carriage, for example.
- It would be better if the agreement details all the actions that the lawyer will have to carry out. For example, in your interests, the lawyer may request documents from the archive, from the bank, may receive money for you (if you trust the lawyer and you cannot do this yourself because of geographical remoteness or for other reasons). Without writing any of the possible actions in the agreement, you run the risk of encountering great difficulties in the course of the matter.
- The lawyer must explain to you in detail and clearly all the ambiguities that some of the clauses of the agreement caused you.
Credentials required to sign a contract with a lawyer
If your lawyer works in a law office, then his managing partner must sign the agreement. In the case of the bar, the document is signed by the chairman of its bureau. In the law office, it is enough for the lawyer to sign the agreement, having sealed his signature with the seal of his organization.
In the event that the lawyer is appointed by decision of the judicial or law enforcement authorities, the agreement is not concluded at all.
General content of the contract
Drawing up a contract with a lawyer is accompanied by many nuances. The agreement should contain information about its subject.This is, first of all, the content of services, a list of conditions and a description of the required actions of an attorney. All this is carefully agreed upon by both parties. In addition, the contract describes the conditions and periods of payment for services, in what form you will pay (compensate) for the lawyer's expenses associated with your order, as well as the nature of the responsibility of your human rights defender. The language of the document should be consistent with the business style, be precise, avoid double-reading and vagueness.
Agreement form
In Art. 25 of the Law on the Bar stipulates that an agreement must be concluded on paper. However, some lawyers offer the principal to conclude an agreement verbally. Do not do this in any case. Drawing up a contract with a lawyer is a sign of the good faith of the attorney, because an oral agreement will not have a factual basis and will help the lawyer avoid responsibility if something happens.
The agreement shall indicate the passport details of yours and the attorney, his number recorded in the register of lawyers, as well as the date of issue and the number of the lawyer's certificate. Data on his organization is registered. In addition, it is recommended that you also indicate the name of the bar, where your lawyer is registered. Then, as we said above, all the conditions that you fulfill as a client and an attorney as your authorized representative are prescribed.
After the conclusion of the contract, the attorney is issued a power of attorney, which was assured at the notary's office. The power of attorney lists all the powers of a lawyer as your defense attorney. The term of the document may vary depending on the particulars of the case.
Advocacy fee
Rates and tariffs for lawyer services do not exist in a fixed form, therefore, remuneration is determined by agreement of the parties. Its payment is made by making this amount at the cash desk of the organization with the subsequent issue of the receipt to the payer. These circumstances are true, for example, to the activities of a lawyer in the preparation of a draft pledge agreement.
The size of the fee is directly determined by the complexity of the case. Other law firms use the practice of a fee of success, although this contradicts the requirements of the law of the Russian Federation. According to his letter, it is forbidden to determine the amount of payment for lawyer services, depending on the results of the client's case. True, property disputes do not apply to this case. Here, traditionally, the remuneration of a lawyer is established in proportion to the price of the claim (if the case is completed in favor of the principal).
In the event that during the case the lawyer incurs additional costs, the client must reimburse them, and this does not affect the amount of remuneration. Moreover, the customer must provide the attorney with the necessary amount in advance to fulfill the order. These points are also reflected in the agreement.
It is important to know that in legal practice, both legal and financial risks are possible, possible during the execution of an order, which, for example, depend on the adoption of new laws or amendments to them.
Legal grounds for the implementation of the lawyer's agreement
The attorney shall fulfill the agreement concluded with the principal in accordance with his position, if it is lawful, real, concrete and feasible. The client should receive clarification from the lawyer that all his requests and wishes related to the violation of the law will be rejected. Also, a lawyer is not entitled to give guarantees of a successful outcome, except for his conscientiousness and the use of all means available under the law. Necessary is the fulfillment of the conditions established by the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The activity of a lawyer in the preparation of a draft contract of carriage, for example, consists in preparing legal documents, checking these papers and monitoring the moment of subsequent signing of the agreement.
If a controversial situation arises, it is recommended that the client immediately contact the Bar Association attached to his territorial entity. If you do not agree with the actions of your attorney or a conflict arose, then this situation can be resolved only with the help of law enforcement or judicial authorities. Crimes committed by lawyers are checked in a special manner, which is related to their human rights status.
Trust in a lawyer
Mutual trust between the client and the lawyer is the basis of their interaction. The same can be said about the activities of a lawyer in the preparation of a public contract. The lawyer, by the nature of his activity, must create a special atmosphere of relations with his client, because in the course of the case he provides personal and sometimes intimate information about himself and his personal life, or reveals trade secrets or data of third parties. All this is indicated in the law by the term "lawyer secrecy."
What should alert the client
Practice knows many cases of lawyers abusing their status, including fraud, that is, knowingly deceiving the client. Signs of an unfair attitude of a lawyer to his duties are:
- non-payment of fees for lawyer services to the cash desk of the organization to which the attorney is assigned;
- refusal to transfer the agreement for registration to the appropriate lawyer education;
- inclusion in the contract of conditions under which the amount of remuneration depends on the outcome of the case (except property disputes);
- signing a loan agreement with the client, which transfers the relationship between the client and the contractor to the civil law plane (and will avoid liability in the future).
In all these cases, the client needs to go to court or law enforcement to protect their rights.