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Services The services offered by a legal office can be extremely varied. First and foremost, we offer extra-judicial advice. Clients look to their attorneys to find out in general or more specific terms how they stand under the law either in order to avoid a legal dispute or once an extrajudicial dispute has arisen.In order to avoid unnecessary costs, we recommend that clients obtain such information before taking any decision to institute legal proceedings. In most cases, the legal fees associated with court proceedings are higher than those for an extra-judicial case. However, it should be noted that on the one hand there is a ceiling on the fee for an initial consultation, and on the other hand, with regard to extra-judicial disputes, the attorney is able to adjust the level of fees in individual cases to meet the requirements of the client by means of a fee agreement. Naturally, the client is entitled to an explanation of costs before they are incurred. Clients, especially business clients, often request ongoing legal advice and consulting agreements. Whatever their legal structure, businesses frequently have legal questions that they want their attorney to resolve as a means of avoiding disputes or problems. So that clients are not billed for each service provided under statutory regulations on legal fees, Dr. Einhaus and Partners offer extra-judicial consulting agreements whereby the costs incurred can be set at a flat rate or on an hourly basis. This way business clients are fully aware of the costs they incur, and as a result are less likely to avoid important questions out of concern over the possible costs. Consulting agreements are tailored to suit individual cases. For businesses this means that questions in areas such as corporate law (especially formation, restructuring, acquisitions, share purchases and reorganizations) as well as debt collection and internal business matters (e.g. labor law) can be billed at a uniform flat rate or on an hourly basis. We are proud of our record of offering consulting agreements as a means of providing ongoing advice to many firms covering all aspects of their business and in a variety of languages. One form of extra-judicial legal service that has now grown in importance is mediation. This is a special form of arbitration between disputing parties who agree to submit their dispute to a mediator. It is our belief that attorneys are better placed to perform this role than other professional groups, since a mutually agreeable and lasting solution is only likely to prove robust if the underlying legal and business issues have been properly resolved. Any final agreement between the parties must also be legally watertight. Mediation based only on good will without the necessary clarity concerning the degree of compromise shown by each party and the robustness of the agreement can be risky. Mediation can play a particularly useful role in issues of family law as an alternative to engaging a number of different attorneys. The process of arbitration is slightly different. Within our office, Attorney at Law Bernd Einhaus is licensed to act as an official arbitrator. In certain cases, e.g. where the property involved is of little value, the arbitrator’s role is to perform the attempt at resolution required by law before any decision to institute legal proceedings. Another important aspect of our work involves representing clients before the courts and the authorities. If it is not possible to avoid court or formal administrative proceedings, your attorney must submit your claims within the stipulated period or defend you against claims filed by other parties. In certain cases, the law prescribes that an attorney must be engaged. In Germany, attorneys are now authorized to act in civil cases at any higher regional court. Now that this barrier has been removed, clients are in a better position to entrust their case to a single office and thus avoid splitting up different elements of the proceedings. By way of example, a client in Freiburg can now engage an attorney he knows from his own place of residence or business to represent his interests before the higher regional court in Hamburg. For further details regarding the license granted to Attorney at Law and Avvocato Dr. David Einhaus to practise law in Italy and the scope of representation available before other European courts under EU rules on the freedom of provision of services, please contact Dr. David Einhaus in person. We can also prepare specialist legal reports on specific matters. These can be particularly useful and indeed necessary in cases where a highly complex legal issue cannot be covered in sufficient depth in the course of verbal discussions or where the issue in question needs to be laid out in writing so that it can then be referred to on future occasions. Such reports are recommended as a means of avoiding costs, particularly in the case of new business formations, prior to any court proceedings and in relation to foreign or European law. Dr. Einhaus and Partners can also provide clients with a wide range of publications and legal documents. The works published by our attorneys can be found in their résumés. Legal documents can also be of considerable value to clients who frequently need to refer to specific legal codes (e.g. professional codes or customs regulations) and do not wish to seek legal advice in person as they already possess a legal background. On request, we can exploit every available means of research to obtain legal documents with a particular focus on new laws or draft bills for which a client may wish to prepare. Attorneys at Law
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