There are no provisions in Bulgarian law defining what fees are ‘average’, ‘usual’ or ‘normal’. This is bound to negotiation between the attorney-at-law and the client. It is, therefore, highly recommendable that you sign a Contract or Letter of Engagement for legal services. Legal fees may be fixed in absolute terms and/or as a percentage of a certain interest, in view of the outcome of proceedings, with the exception of remuneration in criminal cases and in civil cases where a non-material interest is involved. Insist on insertion of clauses safeguarding your interests like: defining a payment plan of the legal fees; payment only via bank transfer; including a detailed description what are the services and actions you are engaging your attorney-at-law for; insert a requirement that the attorney-at-law should provide you with regular reports on the fulfilment of the legal services and keep you informed about all the important issues; termination clauses in case of the attorney-at-law’s failure to perform any of the actions listed or delays in reporting you;

Usually, law firms require a partial or preliminary down payment of the legal fees before commencement of any work as a provision of funds.

Any Bulgarian national with legal age (also EU citizen following the last amendments in the BAR Act) may become an attorney-at-law, provided that he or she complies with the requirements set forth in the law and is dully registered in the Bar Council.

You can check by inserting the attorney-at-law’s name spelled in Bulgarian on http://www.lex.bg/bg/lawyers/search (unfortunately no English version of the site is provided). The site includes information whether the particular attorney-at-law is currently practicing or not and whether he/she was deprived of the right to practice.

In order to find the credentials of a lawyer you may consult with your Embassy, where usually they have a list of experienced lawyers in representing foreign citizens and speaking the respective languages.

An attorney-at-law may incur in disciplinary liability for failure to discharge their duties. A guilty failure to discharge obligations may include:

 1. Breach of attorney-at-law secrecy;

 2. Any omissions which have caused infringement upon the rights and legal interests of clients;

 3. Systematic negligence or manifest ignorance in the discharge of professional duties;

4. Negotiation with clients of a remuneration below the threshold set up by the Ordinance №1 of 9.07.2004 of the Supreme Bar Council for the respective type of work, except in cases where Bar Act and said Ordinance make allowances to this effect;

 5. Violations of professional ethical rules, morals and collegiality in relation to other attorneys-at-law or law firms;

6. Any act that undermines the prestige and dignity of the profession and violation of the rules of professional ethics and morals.

The following sanctions that could be imposed on attorneys-at-law for disciplinary offences:

 1. Censure;

 2. Fine between one and eight minimum salaries;

 3. Deprivation of the right to hold elected office in bodies of the bar for a period between one and three years;

 4. Deprivation of the right to pursue the profession of lawyer for a period of 3 to 18 months;

 5. Deprivation of the right to pursue the profession of lawyer for a period of up to 5 years in the event of repeated offence.

Disciplinary sanctions shall be imposed after taking into consideration the form of guilt, the infringed interests, the causes and surrounding circumstances which have resulted in the commission of the offence, the motivation and other circumstances attenuating or aggravating guilt.

Disciplinary proceedings could be instituted by a decision of the Bar Council or of the Supreme Bar Council in presence of a written notification from public bodies, legal entities or individuals, as well as of authored publications in the media, which contain a sufficient body of information about a disciplinary offence. Anonymous notifications do not constitute statutory grounds for the institution of disciplinary proceedings. A sufficient body of information warranting the institution of disciplinary proceedings shall be available, where a reasonable assumption may be drawn of the existence of a disciplinary offence.

A client may at any point along the relationship withdraw the authorisation given to the attorney-at-law. It is recommendable that you send a written statement to your attorney-at- law notifying him/her about the withdraw of the authorization and request for the original of the initially signed power of attorney. You are also entitled to receive back all the documents related with your case from your lawyer. The statement should not be in any particular form as far as it is clear that you do not want him/her to represent you anymore and you would consider all actions done by him/her on your behalf following the receipt of the notification as actions that do not engage/oblige you. It would be useful to send also such a notification to the parties your attorney-at- law had been dealt with on your behalf. If you have signed a Contract for legal services, make sure you have properly terminated its action and effects too.

Note that if the engaged legal works had been completed fully or only partially performed, the lawyer is entitled to receive full or partial payment of the agreed fees.

The attorney-at-law is obligated to accurately inform the clients of their rights and obligations. In case he/she does not provide you with enough information about your case, it is recommendable to double check the contacts details. Sometimes contact info has been changed and for some reasons the client has not been duly informed.

If there is no success, you should seek an advice from another recommended lawyer (your Embassy could help you to identify a list of recommended lawyers who had been dealing with similar cases).

Finally, you can put into action the protection clauses of the Contract for legal services you have signed with him/her. In case of serious breach of his/her obligation/s you could file a complaint in the Bar Council, where the attorney-at-law is subscribed as a member.

Note that often cases involve several issues or legal rules and the interpretation lawyers give them could vary.

You could consult with other lawyers, particularly specialised in cases like yours or make a small research on the issue yourself and find similar cases to yours.

The legal fees are subjected to negotiation between the attorney-at-law and the client. Consideration should be given to the amount of work involved, the financial aspect of the case, i.e. the interest of the case, the number of actions needed to be performed. Note also the answer to question 21 above.