HKP provides legal services for consideration, pursuant to the regulation of Ministry of Justice SR 655/2004 “Fees and reimbursement of attorneys for providing legal services” Col. Standardly, the conditions of remuneration (together with other conditions of providing legal services) are subject to individual agreement with a client, most frequently in the form of a Retainer Agreement. The retainer agreement might be concluded only for a particular case (ad hoc), or for particular type of legal services provided to a particular client during agreed time period or without limited time period (indefinite period of time).

Possible ways of remuneration for services provided by HKP are the following:

• Fee per hour (HKPBasic)

• Basic way of remuneration on the basis of fee per hour (HKPBasic), wherein the actual time of services provided (conducted by each commenced quarter of hour) is multiplied by hour rate of particular lawyer. Hour rate differs standardly, depending in the position (seniority) of each lawyer, where the base is always the rate per attorney from which the rates for managing partner (+25%), for associate (-25%) as well as the rate for legal/administrative assistent (-75%) arise.

• Monthly credit (HKPCredit)

• For regular legal services in particular amount, the renumeration is established by monthly credit (HKPCredit) in which, the client states the sum per month (credit), which he pays and draws the money by using the services in the course of particular months. The advantage of this remuneration is a discount. The hour rate is decreased by 25% in comparison with standard rate, which are used after using up completely the whole credit per particular month. Further advantage is automatic transfer of remaining sum of credit to the next month, by which the credit per new month is accrued. The transfered sum is drawed prior to the sum for that particular month although repetitive transfer is not possible.

• Flat rate (HKPFlat)

• For particular standard services (e.g. establishment of companies) or matters in which it is possible to assess their anticipated time consumption, it is possible to agree on Flat rate (HKPFlat), which does not afterwards depend on actual time consumption of individual matter.

• Share Rate (HKPSuccess)

• For cases of successful collection of claim/right which is financially assessable, as well as the cases of successful protection of right against financially assessable claims asserted against client, it is usual to agree on so called Share rate (HKPSuccess), which is set by percentage form of collected “saved” amount for the client. The attorney´s right for this share rate is created no earlier than by the moment, when the client receives the claimed sum, or by the effective closing of preceeding conducted against the client.

• Tariff Rate (HKPTariff)

• There occurs another possibility, which is fairly rare. Agreement of remuneration based on so called Tariff Rate (HKPTariff), wherein the steps stipulated in the regulation 655/2004 Col. apply. This tariff is based on remuneration of each (exhaustively listed) legal act within the legal services by fixed sum determined (in the stipulated manner) which depends on their value. The significance of this tariff rate lies in its automatic application to legal services provided without concluding Agreement of remuneration, which arises from the regulation 655/2004 Col.

  Tariff rate plays an important role in representation in judicial (execution) proceedings, because so called representation fees are awarded on their basis (if succeeded) and covered by the loosing party. These representation fees can present a form of remuneration for legal services, or can be included in other form of our remuneration.

There are several combinations of above mentioned ways of remuneration (mainly in case of judicial proceedings), based mainly on remuneration from time to time, taking Fee per hour as the basis (or monthly credit) and a “bonus” for achieving success e.g. in the form of Share rate.

Pursuant to the regulation 655/2004 Col. , our office has beside entitlement to fees for legal services, entitlement to:

• 1. Reimbursement of cost

• Reimbursement of all efficient costs, mainly judicial fees, administrative fees (duty stamp), notary fees, transport reimbursement, feees for translation, expert opinions and etc.

• 2. Operational cost lump sum

• Regarding legal acts accepted within Tariff Rate (stipulated by regulation) the attorney´s office is entitled to so called lump sum, which is deemed as lump-sum reimbursement of local telecomunication and transport costs. It is the amount set every year, depending on the average salary (for the year 2008, it is 190,- Sk for each legal act)

• 3. Reimbursement for loss of time of an attorney

• In case of acts conducted out of the office, entitlement to reimbursement for loss of time of an attorney, spent on the way to the place of the act (and back) in the amount of average annually paid wages (for the year 2008, it is 317,- Sk for each commenced half hour.

Since the attorney´s office is a taxpayer (VAT), agreed remuneration rates do not include VAT, i.e. remuneration as well as the costs and reimbursement (except for judicial and administrative fees) are invoiced to the client together with relevant VAT rate.

Invoicing of provided legal services is conducted on monthly basis (after the end of the relevant month). Specification of each legal act within the provided legal service as well as incurred costs and reimbursement are attached to the invoice.