"Success fee" of an advocate: on the way to the unity of judicial practice

Abstract

The presented work is devoted to the study of the legal nature of the "success fee" as a form of attorney’s remuneration for the provision of legal assistance, as well as to the consideration of the possibilities of applying the structure of such remuneration in the national legal field. The review of the current legislation of Ukraine, as well as the legislation of other countries on the perception and legal regulation of the "success fee", based on the traditional division of law systems into Anglo-Saxon and Continental, was carried out. It is noted that the "success fee" by its nature is an additional remuneration to a lawyer, that is, a premium (bonus) that is paid to the latter in the event of a successful resolution of the client’s case, in addition to the fee that is payable for the provision of services provided by the lawyer under the contract for the provision of legal assistance. Based on the fundamental function of the Supreme Court to ensure the unity of judicial practice, the dynamics of law enforcement approaches is traced at the level of its legal opinions, affecting the nature of the "success fee" and its legality. It is argued that the current practice of the Supreme Court has weakened its categorical attitude to the "success fee" and proceeds from the acceptability of this form of additional attorney’s remuneration, the payment of which depends on the outcome of the case. Also, the conclusions of the Supreme Court on the application of certain norms of procedural laws consider the possibility of resolving the issue of compensation for the costs incurred by a person to pay the “success fee” when the court decides on the distribution of court costs. According to the results of the study, in order to avoid any differences in law enforcement approaches in the future, separate proposals were made for the proper settlement of the issue of "success fee" in national law.