Initial Consultation

Additional value from an initial consultation

The statutory fee for an initial consultation in complicated matters is EUR 249.90 with German Value Added Tax included*. We use the opportunity to charge initial consultations with that rate. In order to make it more convenient for our customers, we accept PayPal and all major credit cards for this payment. No international money transfer is needed to make the payment.

To request a initial consultation, please click “Buy now” and follow the checkout process. Please make sure to leave your email address and phone number. We will contact you in a timely manner after a settlement of our invoice for the initial consultation.

You can expect from an initial consultation by our law office:

• Initial consultation (Erstberatung) either by video-call or by phone call
• Up to 45 minutes initial consultation with the expert and owner Dr. Hosser
• Opportunity to discuss the case´s facts and circumstances with an expert
• Expert´s preliminary impressions regarding your legal position and chances
• Secure video-meeting with the GotoMeeting-system (provided by us), or
• Our calling the customer (costs are covered through 20-Euro fee for expenses).

Your booking an isolated initial consultation does not mean that you assign our law firm beyond the isolated initial consultation. The discussion with German attorney-at-law and trust and estate practitioner Dr. Hosser about the legal starting point and your legal position will be very helpful for your making the decision if you want to assign us.

Compared with a brief phone call, an initial consultation of up to 45 minutes has the additional value for you that we can provide legal advice and answer at least your most important questions about German inheritance law. Almost all of our (potential) clients want to know, if it makes sense at all to pursue the inheritance in Germany further.

Customers who book the initial consultation can discuss the facts and legal circumstances with the expert for international inheritance cases, which we can only offer in a non-gratuitous initial consultation (‘Erstberatung’), but not in a brief orientation-call which could be for free.

Different from the common practice in the US or Canada (at least for brief meetings with a lawyer), such initial consultations with a German attorney-at-law regularly are not for free, but an important first part of the legal consultation. For international succession cases, it would anyhow not be realistic to assume that all of the legal questions in relation to the German estate or inheritance can be answered in a brief (video-)call of up to 45 minutes.

Basically, we do not study any documents prior to any initial consultation. If a document-study in certain special cases is exceptionally required, the 45 minutes overall meeting-time will be reduced by the time for our respective document-studies. Our experience is that the facts and circumstances´ discussion with an expert, in most cases is by far more valuable to the customer than such a reading through documents.

Therefore, you will just have to invest EUR 249.90 (which is less than USD: 270.00; CAD: 360.00 or GBP: 220.00) in order to get that additional value for your case of succession.

* The 249.90 Euros embrace the maximum statutory fee, which can be claimed for an initial consultation by a German attorney-at-law in a complex international inheritance case’s context of Euro 210 (remuneration) and a 20 Euros flat-fee for disbursements for telecommunication etc., in each case plus German Value Added Tax of currently 19 per cent (must be charged for all initial consultations, as we can be held liable for charging the German Value Added Tax).