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A professional specialist you can trust
Lawyers are professional specialists who have taken oath and who have to be members of a Law Society. The Law Society imposes a certain number of rules on them and ensures compliance with those rules.
A regulated profession
The legal profession is governed by strict rules, in particular in the field of ethics. The main ethical principles involved are as follows:
- Professional secrecy. This prohibits lawyers from divulging the confidential information and secrets revealed to them by their clients. This is the cornerstone of the relations of trust between lawyers and their clients.
- Confidentiality. This applies to communications between lawyers during negotiations.
- Independence. This provides private individuals or businesses with a guarantee that the advice given to them is not influenced by outside pressures.
- Loyalty. This enables lawyers to avoid situations involving conflicts of interest by preventing a given lawyer from defending or advising two parties whose interests are likely to be opposed. It also imposes on lawyers the necessity of forwarding the documents in their possession and their conclusions to the opposite party, thus ensuring equal levels of knowledge between the two parties and encouraging joint discussions.
Professional liability insurance
All lawyers who are members of a Law Society have to take out insurance cover, and their professional liability is involved.
All the funds entrusted to a lawyer on behalf of his clients are deposited in a special account that is governed and managed by a specialized organization: the CARPA.
Fees
Lawyers are free to set their fees in agreement with their clients. However, a certain number of objective criteria are taken into account when determining the amounts to be charged. Furthermore, there are several possible methods for charging the fees (inclusive fees, hourly rates, etc.)
Moreover, you may be entitled to legal protection insurance cover. Don’t hesitate to contact your insurer or the service providers with which you may have taken out cover (insurer, bank, etc.).
Lastly, if your income levels are modest, you may be entitled to Legal Aid.
As in all relations, the secret of trust lies in dialogue. Don’t hesitate to go over all these questions with your lawyer during the first appointment.
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