Allen
- Oct 25, 2022
- 2 min read

How Much Does it Cost to Hire an English Speaking lawyer in China

If you do business with Chinese, have investment in China or have disputes with Chinese companies, you may have to deal with Chinese lawyers.

The statistic shows as of March 2022, there are more than 600,000 Chinese lawyers. However, very few of them can provide bilingual, professional and affordable legal services. In the past we have an introduction about how to find professional Chinese lawyers that speak English. Today we will introduce you to how these lawyers charge their attorney fees.

Normally speaking, Chinese lawyers charge by hourly rate, flat fee or contingency fee.

Option 1: Hourly rate

Hourly rate means a Chinese lawyer bill you by actual hours they spend in your case, including legal analysis, legal documents drafting, negotiation, court hearing, etc. Most of Chinese lawyer charge between USD 200 to USD 600 per hour, depending on their experience..

Normally speaking for travel expenses, they charge half that or less.

Option 2: Flat fee

Most Chinese lawyers can offer flat fee for clients, which means a fixed fee for a fixed services scope.

If you choose flat fee, you need to confirm the scope of work. For example in a civil litigation, there are first trial, second trial, enforcement, and counter civil claim. If you accept an offer for a civil case, you need to confirm if the fee covers all stages you instruct the lawyer to handle.

Option 3: Contingency fee

Some Chinese lawyers also take contingency fee plan. Contingency fee means lower fees upfront and a share of percentage after winning the case, or no-win-no-fee.

Normally speaking for completely no-win-no-fee, a Chinese lawyer will have a strict standard for taking such cases, for example they need to be confident about financial situation of the defendant.

More Chinese lawyers accept half contingency fee, which means lower fees upfront and a share of percentage after winning the case. Because this fee schedule covers basic cost of a law firm, at the same time cut the spending for the client when facing uncertainty.

We also have this final tip for you: whichever the fee structure you choose, you need to confirm if the fee include the tax or not.