Rwanda’s poor face the threat of injustice as lawyers set to raise legal fees

Lawyers chat after a court session. Legal services are set to become dearer for Rwandans after the bar association proposed higher tariffs. Photo/Cyril Ndegeya 

By EMMANUEL RUTAYISIRE Special Correspondent

In Summary

• A proposal on the envisaged legal fees sets minimum and maximum tariffs covering fee advisories on business transactions, contract drafting, marriages, mortgage registration and representation in court, among other services.
• Kigali Bar Association made the proposal deemed as being on the higher end while the government pleads it is legally prohibited from refraining lawyers from raising their charges.
• While court fees are waived for the poor, local leaders say, requisite papers to prove that they are indigent do not come easy

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Legal services in Rwanda are set to become an expensive affair after the Bar association moves to gazette new tariffs.

 

Kigali Bar Association has proposed a ceiling deemed as being on the higher end while the government pleads it is legally prohibited from refraining lawyers from raising their charges.

Lawyers told Rwanda Today in separate interviews that the government cannot interfere in the ongoing fixing of their fees because they are independent. They also described the minimum tariffs set in 1997 as hazy and far below the prevailing market rates.

Change to tariff prohibited

The old tariffs have been less binding, to the extent that many lawyers say they have limited knowledge about them.

A proposal on the envisaged legal fees sets minimum and maximum tariffs covering fee advisories on business transactions, contract drafting, marriages, mortgage registration and representation in court, among other services.

Article 5 of the draft law reads in part: “All manners, agreements or concerted practices to provide alternative methods of determining or lowering of the minimum fee specified in this regulation are prohibited.”

Conciliation services, which were until recently priced at no more than Rwf200,000, will under the revised tariffs attract a fee of between Rwf200,000 and Rwf2.5 million.

Counsel assistance in criminal proceedings that make it to the Supreme Court will attract a base fee ranging from Rwf600,000 to Rwf5 million.

“We find difficult to price services rendered in criminal justice in Rwanda,” said a senior private attorney who preferred not to be named. “Some cases have political connotations, but we also have this urge to save lives.”

There are very few mergers and acquisition deals that require legal services in Rwanda but well-to-do Rwandans, commercial banks and real estate developers seek legal advice in mortgage registration and property purchase or financing agreements, the attorney added.

Lawyers have been charging varied but relatively low fees for their services to this sector and the new tariffs have been raised to between five per cent and 10 per cent in deal value.

Mortgage creation and registration for a Rwf100 million property attracts five per cent of its value, or Rwf5 million, while legal and regulatory due diligence on firms is to cost between 3.5 per cent and 12 per cent in value terms.

The arrangement is that, the higher the deal value, the lower the charges.

“There has been a lot of confusion on tariff issues… at one point the Bar just put some sketchy thing in place [old tariffs] that has been far below market rates and less binding,” Alfred Bandora, a private attorney, argued.