There is no national price list for legal work in South Africa. Two attorneys in the same street can quote very differently for the same letter, and both quotes can be honest. What moves the number is how the work is charged, who actually does it, where the firm sits, and how hard the other side fights. Once you understand those four things, a quote stops being a mystery and becomes something you can question.

This page explains how attorneys charge, what you are really paying for, and which costs never reach the attorney at all. Then it points you to a detailed page for your kind of problem, with typical ranges you can use to sanity check any quote you are given.

The four ways an attorney charges

By the hour. The default in most matters. The attorney records time in units and bills you for it, including telephone calls, emails, reading your documents and travelling. Ask for the hourly rate of every person who will touch the file, not just the one you met. A director, an associate, a candidate attorney and a paralegal charge different rates, and a well run firm pushes routine work down to the cheapest person who can do it properly. A rate on its own tells you almost nothing. Ask how many hours the next stage is likely to take.

A fixed fee. One agreed amount for one defined piece of work: a letter of demand, a lease, a will, a transfer. Fixed fees are good for you because the risk of the work running long sits with the attorney. The question to ask is what is excluded. Most cover drafting only, and stop the moment the other side responds or the matter becomes opposed.

A contingency fee. The Contingency Fees Act 66 of 1997 allows an attorney to agree that you pay nothing, or a reduced fee, if the matter fails, and a higher fee if it succeeds. The Act requires a written agreement in the prescribed form and limits what may be charged if you win. It is common in personal injury and Road Accident Fund work, and it is not offered for every kind of matter. Never accept a contingency arrangement on a handshake. Read the definition of success before you sign, because a settlement, a partial award and a court order are not always treated the same way, and check whether disbursements come out of your share. See how no win no fee works.

A retainer. The word carries two meanings and people confuse them. The first is money paid up front and held in the firm's trust account, drawn down as work is done and billed. That money is still yours until it is properly invoiced, and you are entitled to a statement showing what came out and why. The second is a monthly fee paid by a business for ongoing availability. Ask which one is being proposed, and what happens to the balance if you end the mandate.

Fees and disbursements are not the same thing

A fee is what the attorney charges for time and skill. A disbursement is money the firm pays out on your behalf and recovers from you. Disbursements include court filing fees, the sheriff who serves your papers, deeds office fees, the Master's fees in a deceased estate, advertising, transcripts, courier and postage, travel, search fees, expert and medical reports, and the fee of any advocate briefed on the matter.

Disbursements are the part of a bill people never see coming, because a quote for "drafting and issuing summons" may exclude every one of them. Ask for a separate written estimate before work starts. Ask separately whether the quoted figure includes value added tax, because most firms quote excluding it. Court fees are set by regulation rather than by the attorney, and you can get a sense of them with the court fees calculator.

An attorney and an advocate do different jobs

An attorney takes your instructions directly, opens the file, holds any money you pay in a trust account, drafts and corresponds, and appears in court in most matters. An advocate, also called counsel, is a specialist in courtroom argument and written opinions. Traditionally an advocate is briefed by your attorney rather than instructed by you, does not hold client money, and does not run the file.

Briefing counsel means two professionals are working on your matter, and that is why it costs more. Counsel usually charges a fee for each day in court and often for preparation before it. That is not padding. A senior advocate arguing a difficult point may be the difference between winning and losing, and in the High Court it is often the sensible choice. But it is a real cost, and you should be told about it before the brief goes out, not when the invoice arrives. Ask early whether counsel is likely to be needed and roughly what that will add.

What drives a bill up

Whether the matter is opposed. Most of the cost of litigation is created by the other side answering.
Urgency. Work done overnight or over a weekend costs more, because everything else is pushed aside for it.
Seniority and location. A senior specialist in a major metro charges more than a competent general practitioner in a smaller centre.
The forum. Magistrates' Court work is cheaper than High Court work, because the process is shorter and the record is smaller.
Volume and disorder. Documents sent in fifteen separate messages take longer to work through than one indexed bundle. This is the cost driver entirely within your control.
Postponements. Every wasted court date is a day someone prepared for and nobody used.
Experts. Medical reports, valuations and actuarial calculations are charged by the expert on top of everything else.

Party and party costs are not the same as what you paid

If you win, the court can order the other side to pay your costs. This is the rule people mean when they say the loser pays. It almost never means you get your money back in full.

Party and party costs are the ordinary order. They allow only the items and amounts permitted by the court's tariff, and the tariff was never designed to match what attorneys actually charge. Recovering a meaningful share of what you spent is a good outcome on this scale.

Attorney and client costs are a wider scale, ordered where the court thinks the way a party behaved justifies more generous recovery. It allows more items, but it is still a scale and it is still taxed.

Attorney and own client costs are simply what you agreed with your own attorney. That is the number on your invoice, and it is the number you are liable for regardless of what any costs order says.

Read that in the other direction too. If you lose, a costs order can be made against you, and you may have to pay a share of the other side's bill on top of your own. That risk is the single most important thing to weigh before you defend or bring an opposed matter.

Taxation of a bill, and your right to ask for one

Taxation has nothing to do with SARS. It is the process where an independent official of the court, the taxing master, goes through a bill of costs item by item and allows, reduces or disallows each one. Both a costs order between parties and your own attorney's account can be taken to taxation.

Start with your own attorney. Ask in writing for a detailed itemised account showing the date of each entry, who did the work, what was done and how long it took. A lump sum invoice with one line on it is not something you can assess. If the account still looks wrong, say so in writing and ask for it to be taxed. The Legal Practice Council also deals with complaints about overcharging, and it is the right place to go when a conversation with the firm goes nowhere. Raising a query is not an insult and a good firm expects it.

How to keep control of what you spend

Get a written mandate before any work starts. It should name the rates, the scope, what is excluded, and how disbursements are handled.
Ask for a stage estimate, not just an hourly rate. "About six to eight hours to draft and issue" tells you far more than a rate does.
Cap the instruction. Agree a ceiling, and agree that no work above it happens without your written go ahead.
Set a reporting trigger. Ask to be told when the fee reaches an agreed level, before it is passed.
Ask what each step will cost before it happens. Not at the end.
Ask for itemised invoices monthly rather than one account at the close of the matter.
Do the organising yourself. One indexed folder in date order, plus a one page timeline, saves real money.
Weigh the cost against the value. Spending more than the matter is worth is common and avoidable.

An illustrative example of how a bill is built

The figures below are invented to show the shape of an account. They are not a quote, they are not typical of any particular matter, and no attorney is bound by them.

Thandi brings an opposed application. Her attorney's professional fee comes to R12 000. Counsel is briefed and charges R15 000. The sheriff charges R800 to serve the papers, copies and courier come to R400, and the court filing fee is a further amount. Her account is roughly R28 200 before value added tax. She wins, with an order that the other side pay her party and party costs. Her bill is taxed and the taxing master allows R9 000 on that scale. She recovers R9 000 and carries the rest herself. She won, and she is still out of pocket. That gap is the whole reason to read this page.

The routes that cost nothing

Before you pay anyone, check whether your problem belongs somewhere free. The CCMA handles workplace disputes at no charge on 0861 16 16 16. Legal Aid South Africa provides actual representation to people who pass its means test on 0800 110 110. Ombud schemes for insurance, banking, credit, retail and motor disputes cost you nothing. The Maintenance Court, the Rental Housing Tribunal, the Equality Court and the Children's Court are all built for people without attorneys. The Small Claims Court hears modest money claims with no attorney on either side, and you can check whether your claim fits with the Small Claims Court checker. If you are in immediate danger, phone SAPS on 10111 first and worry about the rest afterwards.

The full list, with what each one covers and how to reach it, is on the free legal help page.

What does your kind of matter cost?

Each page below sets out typical ranges for that area, what drives the cost, when paying an attorney is worth it, and when it is not.

Labour. Dismissals, retrenchment, CCMA arbitration and Labour Court reviews.
Family. Divorce, maintenance, care and contact, protection orders.
Property and tenancy. Transfers, bonds, leases, deposits and evictions.
Debt and credit. Debt review, judgments, garnishee orders, credit bureau disputes.
Claims and compensation. Road Accident Fund and injury claims, rejected insurance claims, defamation.
Wills and estates. Drafting a will, winding up an estate, the executor's fee, contested wills.
Criminal. Bail, trial, appeal and clearing a record.
Immigration. Visas, appeals, permanent residence and citizenship.
Traffic and AARTO. Fines, representations, licence issues and driving offences.
Small business and POPIA. Contracts, company matters, compliance and debt collection.

LawMatch is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Every figure on these pages is a guide meant to help you have an informed conversation about fees, not a price you are entitled to.