Laws of the People's Republic of China

Ministry of Justice

Order of the Ministry of Justice of the People¡¯s 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 16th, 2004, are hereby promulgated, and shall come into force as of May 1st, 2004.

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 laws, regulations, and provisions on lawyers¡¯ service charge.

Article 2

The charging items, charging standards and charging ways of a law firm shall be carried out in conformity with the Interim Measures for the Administration of Lawyers Services Charge and the relevant provisions on lawyers service charge as formulated by the competent price departments and administrative departments of justice of the provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government.

Article 3

Law firms shall adhere to the principle of legality, openness, fairness, and consistency through negotiation for their charging of lawyers service fees.

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 4 and 7 of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Lawyers Service Charge.

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 lawyer¡¯s services by posting, printing service guide, or other ways, and be supervised by the clients.

Article 7

After accepting the entrustment, a law firm shall conclude charging contracts with the clients or specify charging clause in the entrustment contract.

A charging contract shall cover the following contents: charging items, ways and standards, amount or proportion of charges, ways of payment or settlement, and methods of dispute resolution, etc..

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 the charging clauses of the charging contract or the entrustment contract.

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 agent upon the request of the clients or due to other reasons, the undertaking lawyer shall provide the power of attorney signed by the clients and specifying the amount of charges to be paid to the law firm.

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 introductory letters, etc..

Article 12

In accordance with the provisions of Article 8 of the Interim Measures for the Administration of Lawyers Service Charge, where the clients need to pay additional fees for handling a case, the law firm shall inform the clients in advance. The specific items and ways of payment shall be determined by the two parties through negotiation.

Article 13

Where a law firm on behalf of the clients pays fees for identification, appraisal, or translation, fees charged by the people¡¯s courts according to law, and other fees for handling a case, it shall settle them with the clients upon the strength of the effective certificates.

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 budgetary estimate for such fees to the clients, for which the two parties shall enter into an agreement through negotiation, with their names signed on for confirmation. Where during the process of handling a case, there is real necessity to adjust the budgetary estimate for fees due to the change of circumstances, the law firm shall negotiate about it with the clients again, and implement it after the two parties have signed their names on it for confirmation.

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 in a different place.

After completing the matters entrusted, the undertaking lawyer shall submit the effective certificates of bills for use of fees and for the expenditure to the law firm, and accept the audit of the law firm.

Where after auditing, the law firm deems that the items and standards of expenditure are not appropriate, the expenditure shall be reduced after checking. The fees reduced through checking shall be borne by the undertaking lawyer.

Article 16

Where after completing the entrusted matters, a law firm shall settle the fees paid in advance with the clients for business trip of lawyers for their handling of a case in different places in time. It shall submit the effective certificates of bill for use of fees and for expenditure to the clients when making the settlement, which shall be checked and confirmed by the clients.

Article 17

A law firm may, upon the approval of the relevant departments, establish a special account for depositing the contract money, enforcement money, and deposit for performance of a contract, and other funds they keep for the clients.

A law firms shall strictly administer the special account, and prevent the risk. The payment of funds in the special account must be checked and guarded strictly to ensure that the special funds be used for special purposes. No one may embezzle the funds in the special accounts for other purposes.

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 thereof. But the undertaking lawyer may not decide by himself/herself to reduce the amount of lawyers service charge or postpone payment thereof.

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 items or pay introductory fees to the agent.

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 enter into an agreement through negotiation, they may ask the local lawyers association to handle it through mediation, or institute a proceeding to the people¡¯s court.

Article 21

A law firm shall be supervised and inspected by the local competent price department or administrative department of justice for its charging acts.

Article 22

Where a law firm and their lawyers violate the present Rules, the administrative department of justice and the lawyers associations shall impose an administrative punishment or vocational punishment on them in accordance with the relevant provisions.

Article 23

The present Rules shall come into force as of May 1st, 2004.