Post by account_disabled on Mar 12, 2024 11:13:03 GMT 2
If there is no controversy regarding the unilateral termination of the contract for the provision of legal services by the contracting parties, before the end of the process in which they were represented by the lawyer, the payment of the expected remuneration becomes payable regardless of the satisfaction of the credit owed to the clients in the demand.
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Reproduction Lawyer must receive contractual fees after unilateral termination
Based on this understanding, the 33rd Chamber of Private Law of the Court of Justice of São Paulo reformed a sentence on the execution of contractual fees due to the early termination of the legal fees contract, based on article 129 of the Civil Code.
The lawyer moved to execute an extrajudicial title based on a legal fees contract, in which the amount was adjusted to 10% of the economic benefit that would be obtained in the processes in which he would act on behalf of his clients. According to him, the contract was terminated by the clients, thus affecting the clause that states that the fees relating to the work carried out must be paid.
The clients filed an embargo on Portugal Mobile Number List execution, claiming that, given the early termination of the contract, full remuneration of the contracted fees would not be due. The rapporteur, judge Ana Lucia Romanhole Martucci, stated that the lawyer is right in the sense that the execution does not refer to the fine for early termination, but only to the contractual fees adjusted by 10% ad exitum relating to two cases that have already become final and unappealable.
"In the case at hand, it appears that the appellant lawyer worked in the processes for a long period, representing clients throughout the entire knowledge phase, including the presentation of an appeal and reaching the final judgment. After this, there was an unjustified termination of the agreement, before the effective satisfaction of the debt", stated the rapporteur.
She highlighted that one of the processes was distributed in 2015, and the other in 2017, with the contractual termination only occurring in December 2018: "As a result, the minimum percentage of 10% on the economic benefit obtained by customers appears due and quite reasonable and proportional to the work carried out by the lawyer, so there is no need for arbitration to determine proportional fees".
According to the rapporteur, there is also no need to talk about the absence of enforceability of the executive title. This is because, he stated, from the moment the lawyer stops sponsoring the case, he can no longer be charged with completing his term of office, meaning that the remuneration for his work can no longer depend on the satisfaction of the credit.
"Because the appellant is no longer in charge of the processes, he cannot be required to wait indefinitely for the appellees to receive their credit recognized in both processes", he concluded. The decision was unanimous. Lawyer Felipe Antonio Andrade Almeida , who worked on the case, said that the decision represents an achievement for the legal profession.