In accordance with Article 105 of the EOA, lawyers’ fees must correspond to adequate financial compensation for the services actually provided, which must be paid in cash and may take the form of a fixed fee. When setting fees, lawyers must take into account the importance of the services provided, the difficulty and urgency of the matter, the degree of intellectual creativity involved, the result obtained, the time spent, the responsibilities assumed, and other professional practices. The fees thus cover all intellectual services as well as the exercise of legal practice before the courts, public administration, official bodies, and private entities. For certain legal services, such as the study and monitoring of cases, the drafting of contracts in general, opinions, letters, consultations at the office, or consultations by telephone, our fees are calculated on the basis of a fixed hourly rate. For other types of services, such as the incorporation of companies and the drafting of standard contracts, a fixed flat fee is applied. For services provided under a retainer agreement, fees are calculated on the basis of an average monthly or annual estimate of hours, considered as the minimum necessary to guarantee the implicit availability of the lawyers assigned to the client during the term of the contract. In order to allow its clients to budget and allocate the fees, Cavaleiro Machado & Associados, at the time of contracting, provides a fee estimate for the services requested, based on the estimated number of hours and lawyers allocated to the legal service requested, with a preference for periodic invoicing of the services provided throughout their execution, in order to allow the client better control over costs.
