Prices and lawyers fee

My help as a lawyer can be done on the basis of the system of government payment (toevoegingen) or with a legal fee. Below you can find more information for both situations. Making a free appointment or just a paid consultation at my office is unfortunately not possible. The help starts with the advice fee.

Government payment

Depending on your income you may be eligible for legal assistance through government payment (toevoeging) also known as pro bono lawyer. This counts for most cases where an appeal needs to be done at the IND (bezwaar) or court (beroep). You can see whether you qualify for this in this schedule:

If you don’t fulfill these requiremens or the application is rejected and you need to pay for the legal fees yourself see below.

If applicable I will submit the application for government payment myself on your behalf to the Raad voor Rechtsbijstand using your BSN number or V number. The decision usually is made within 2 weeks after the application. Because the income is measured on your fiscal year of 2 years ago, sometimes it can help to ask them to change the reference year for your income. I can help with sending you the correct forms to change this (peiljaarverlegging). My office works together with the Raad voor Rechtsbijstand on the basis of a high trust agreement.

Most cases require a small fee (eigen bijdrage) as shown in the scheme above. This is mostly for immigration cases. Asylum cases usually don’t require a small fee (eigen bijdrage). You can receive a discount of € 65 for the small fee if you contact the Juridisch Loket in advance to discuss your problem. Make sure to tell them you already have me as your lawyer. The number to contact them is 0900 - 8020.

Please note that in some cases the government payment (toevoeging) can be withdrawn afterwards. In that case, you may have to pay the costs of legal assistance yourself. You can read these and all other conditions on the website of the Raad voor Rechtsbijstand.

Note that not every case is applicable for government payment (toevoeging). In my office its not possible to ask for government payment for advice or help with an application for a residence permit. Also most HASA application cases cannot be done on government payment in my office. The HASA court procedures can usually be done on government payment. Also asking for help and advice when you have not yet asked for asylum cannot be done on government payment. These cases can only be done on a legal fee. You are free to contact a different firm if you wish to submit these cases by government payment (toevoeging).

If you already have a lawyer I usually don’t want to take over the case on government payment unless there are urgent reasons such as a serious breach of trust. I will always let you know in advance if I can take over a case on government payment or not.

Legal fee (paid cases)

If you are not eligible for government payment (toevoeging) as stated above, your case will be done on a legal fee. In almost all cases I work with a fixed fee. The fixed fee prices are based on my experience as a lawyer and based on an hourly fee as mentioned in the terms and conditions. Because of my extensive experience, I can always make a good estimate of the costs in advance and for you its clear to know what the total cost of the legal fee will be. Clarity and transparency are important to me and to you. This is the reason why I don’t like to work with an hourly fee.

The fee is always applicable per part of the procedure. Usually we start with an advice fee for a careful assessment of your case. Your questions will be answered and the chances of your case will be discussed. Also analyzing your full legal file and assessing the options for submitting a (new) application are done on the basis of an advice fee.

After that we have a fee for the help with the application, starting from our first contacts up to the decision of the IND to our submitted application. If the application is rejected, we discuss the fees for the appeal at the IND (bezwaar). If the appeal is rejected, we discuss the fees for the appeal procedure at court (beroep) and high court (hoger beroep).

When an application needs to be done its not always clear what the chances of success will be. This sometimes requires investigation of documents, other prove or hiring external experts. In such cases we can split the fee in two parts. The first part will be the advice part (analyzing the chances) and the second part (if we chose to continue the case) will be submitting the application itself.

If for whatever reason we decide to stop the case, the first 2 rated hours are usually considered a starting fee regardless of the nature of the work as this also includes all administrative work. This therefore cannot be refunded. We will also look for a solution in the case this happens.

No consultation fee

Because of my busy schedule I don’t have a consultation fee and it's not possible to plan a meeting without discussing the appropriate fees. The fee starts with the advice fee in my office. This doesn’t mean you cannot contact me. I will always reply quickly and free of charge. If I think that further help is only possible on legal payment due to the amount of work or questions asked, I will let you know on time. You can then decide to contact a different firm.

Court fees and other fees

The fees discussed here are only the lawyers fees. Other fees are not included.

In cases when we need to court, you will also need to pay the court fees (griffierechten) for every procedure before the court. You need to pay these fees directly to court. Sometimes there are two procedures at the same time (beroep and vovo) so in that case for both cases the fees need to be paid. Depending on your income we can ask the court not to charge you fees. In asylum cases there is also no fee. For more information, please visit www.rechtspraak.nl.

In cases an application needs to be done at the IND, the fee (leges) needs to be paid. For the cost of each application check this page.

If we need to hire third parties, such as medical experts or other experts, these are not included in the fixed fees and will be charged separately.

Takeover fees

If you already have a lawyer I usually don’t want to take over the case on government payment unless there are urgent reasons such as a serious breach of trust. I will always let you know in advance if I can take over a case on government payment or not. If I cannot take over the case, you always have the right to contact a lawyer who wishes to do so, or agree with my proposed fixed fee. We determine this together in consultation and always in advance so that you can decide what you want.

If I do decide to take over the case on government payment, a new small fee (eigen bijdrage) will be imposed. This is not determined by me as a lawyer, but by the Raad voor Rechtsbijstand where the application is done. Bear in mind that its prohibited for me as a lawyer to ask both fees at the same time.