Legal costs explode: Consumers are less likely to complain about lack of money!
Legal costs explode: Consumers are less likely to complain about lack of money!
From June 2025, it will be expensive for many consumers in Austria and Germany if they take legal action into account. With the entry into force of the cost and supervisor amendment law amendment law 2025, the lawyers and court fees increase significantly. For consumers, this means that they now have to expect costs of at least 2,000 to 2,500 euros in typical disputes. In the case of higher-quality purchases, the fees could even increase to up to 11,000 euros, such as Insurance Journal
The new fee structures have an increase in remuneration by about 9 percent, both for lawyers and the court fees. This is an answer to the economic development, which has been requested since the last adjustment in 2013 and the 2021 cost law amendment, the experts notice. These adjustments are part of the improved law that will come into force from June 1, 2025 and aim to make the remuneration structure for lawyers more fairly, such as IWW explained.
rising costs lead to legal setbacks
The high costs of legal disputes represent a real handicap for many people. According to the latest surveys, almost 60 percent of consumers do without a lawsuit because the financial hurdles are too high. This tendency is also supported by 52 percent of lawyers who advise against a procedure due to the increased costs. This means that many consumers simply give up their legal concern instead of defending themselves in court.
In order to get a better idea of the new costs, here are some exemplary disputes and their potential fees: A plaintiff for personal needs can lead to costs of 4,369 euros, while an action for dismissal protection with an amount in dispute from 21,048 euros can cost to EUR 4,126. A reversal of a purchase contract for a defective new car could even result in fees of 11,109 euros. The corresponding amounts of dispute have increased by about a fifth, which does not make things easier.
legal protection insurance under pressure
In view of the dramatically rising costs, legal protection insurers must also expect higher expenses. It is estimated that the expected additional costs amount to around 250 million euros a year. This could cause policies to become more expensive or that insurance companies become more strictly in the approval of claims. At the current status, about 60 percent of households have legal protection insurance, which shows how important this protection is now.2024 there were around 27.3 million legal protection insurance contracts in Germany, in which the providers have raised benefits over 3.8 billion euros in over 4.8 million cases of services, a large part of which could be found on lawyers' fees, such as Juraforum determined.
summarized the prospect of increasing legal costs for consumers and lawyers. It remains to be seen how the new legislation will affect the legal landscape in Austria and Germany and whether access to justice is still difficult for many people.
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| Ort | Rohrbach, Deutschland |
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