Fees
What Czech advocates charge and why
Fees are either contractual, freely negotiated in the engagement letter, or set by the advocate tariff in Decree No. 177/1996. Most Prague firms serving expats work on hourly or flat contractual fees. The tariff usually applies only when the court awards costs to a winning party.
Typical contractual rates
- Junior advocate, small firm: 1,800 to 2,500 CZK per hour plus VAT.
- Established advocate, English-speaking, Prague: 2,500 to 5,000 CZK per hour plus VAT.
- Partner at a large international firm: 6,000 CZK and up per hour plus VAT.
- Flat fee for a standard contract review: 3,000 to 10,000 CZK plus VAT.
- Flat fee for a simple lawsuit through first instance: 20,000 to 60,000 CZK plus VAT.
The statutory tariff
The tariff sets a fixed fee per procedural act (podani, hearing, appeal), indexed to the amount in dispute. For a 500,000 CZK dispute, one procedural act is worth about 11,000 CZK. Successful parties usually recover these amounts from the losing side, not the actual fees they paid their advocate.
Court costs
- Civil lawsuit filing fee: 5 percent of the amount claimed, minimum 1,000 CZK.
- Simple non-monetary claims: 2,000 CZK.
- Appeals: another 5 percent.
- Constitutional Court complaints: 0 CZK.
Reimbursement of costs
Winning party is generally awarded its filing fee and tariff-based advocate fees against the losing party. So a plaintiff who wins a 100,000 CZK claim can typically recover the 5,000 CZK filing fee and roughly 15,000 to 25,000 CZK in legal costs, on top of the principal.