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How Barristers Charge Their Fees

How much does a barrister charge? How does a barrister charge for attending court? Is a barrister required to agree his fees in advance for attending court? For other kinds of work, is a barrister also required to agree his fees in advance? How does a barrister fix the level of "the Brief", "the Refresher" and "the hourly rate"? Is a barrister entitled to be paid his brief fee if a case in which he is instructed to attend court is settled or adjourned? What about any entitlement to refresher fees if a case is settled or adjourned or if the hearing is shortened? Is a barrister entitled to be paid any fee if he is asked to mark his diary and reserve an available date for a case? Can a barrister sue a solicitor or lay client to recover his outstanding fees? Is there a mechanism to resolve the dispute relating to a barrister's fees? Are a barrister's fees negotiable? What should I do if I find the barrister's fees to be exorbitant? How do I know if the fees quoted by a barrister are reasonable? How do I find out the qualifications and experience of a barrister?

A barrister's fees for attending court are normally expressed in terms of "brief" and "refresher". A brief fee is the fee for the first day of appearance in court and will normally include the preparation work which includes perusal of documents and research on the law. Such preparation work can take from 1 to several days excluding the first day in court. A refresher is the fee for each subsequent day of appearance in court until the hearing finishes and is usually much lower than the brief fee. For example, for a barrister who normally charges HK$5,000 per day, his brief fee will be HK$15,000 if the case calls for 2 days of preparation (i.e. HK$5,000 x 2 for preparation plus HK$5,000 for the first day of court appearance). In this example, the refresher will be HK$5,000 for each additional day in court.