In short. Most commercial court lawyers in Delhi will charge you in one of four ways. Per hearing. A fixed figure for each stage of the case. A monthly retainer. Or, for bigger corporate work, by the hour. What they can't do is take a cut of what you recover, because Bar Council rules forbid it. Court fee, mediation fee and the other outside costs come on top. This guide is for a business budgeting a commercial suit or a defence. Settling the fee shouldn't take more than one meeting and an email. Get it in writing, stage by stage, before you sign the vakalatnama.
Is this your situation?
- The other side's notice came last week, the clock on your written statement is running, and you still don't know how the lawyer you're about to hire will bill you.
- Two lawyers quoted for the same suit. One sent a per-hearing figure, the other a stage-wise sheet, and you can't put them side by side.
- Your CFO won't sign off on the engagement until someone gives the board a litigation budget.
- Somebody offered to work for a percentage of whatever comes in, and you'd like to know if that's even allowed.
- You run a startup or a small MSME. Cash is tight, and the legal spend has to be spread over the life of the case.
- You've got a quote in hand, but nobody has told you whether it covers appeals, execution, interim applications or a senior counsel.
The short answer: four ways lawyers bill a commercial suit
There are four common ways a commercial court lawyer in Delhi will charge you. The first is per appearance. You pay for each hearing, and drafting is billed on top. The second is stage-wise, meaning a fixed figure for each step of the case: the notice, mediation, plaint, interim application, evidence and arguments. Third, a monthly retainer, which suits businesses with several matters going at once. And fourth, hourly billing, used mostly by the larger firms that act for companies. Plenty of engagements mix two of these. A common pairing is a stage fee for drafting and a per-appearance fee for hearings.
What's missing from that list matters just as much. Rule 20 of the Bar Council of India Rules says an advocate can't fix a fee that depends on the result of the case, or agree to share in what's recovered. So a percentage of the decree, a 'no win, no fee' deal or a bonus for winning is off the table for any advocate practising properly. That rule is firm. Separately, the government and process costs of the case (court fee, mediation fee, copying charges and the like) are never part of the lawyer's fee. They should be listed on their own.
Why two fee quotes are so hard to compare
We see this all the time. Two quotes for the same suit look nothing alike and end up costing about the same, or they look alike and finish miles apart. That's because a commercial suit isn't one job. It's a string of jobs, and nobody knows at the start how many there'll be or how long each will take. Will the other side settle in mediation? Will it apply for leave to defend in a summary suit? Will there be interim applications, two witnesses or ten, a dozen adjourned dates? A fee structure is really just a way of splitting that uncertainty between you and your lawyer.
With a per-appearance fee, the risk of a long case sits with you. Every adjournment costs money. A single fixed fee for the whole suit shifts the risk to the lawyer, which sounds good until you think it through. If the case drags, the lawyer has little reason to put extra hours into your file. A stage-wise fee sits between the two. Most businesses find it the easiest to budget, because each stage is a defined piece of work with a known figure attached.
When Advocate B.K. Singh talks advocate fee structure with a business, he first works out which stages are realistically ahead. A summary suit against a buyer likely to default needs a very different plan from a contested suit with expert evidence. The plan comes first. The fee follows it.
The fee structures, side by side
| Structure | How it works | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per appearance | A set amount for each hearing, plus separate drafting fees for the plaint, written statement and applications | Short matters, or ones nobody can size yet; clients who'd rather pay only for work actually done | Adjournments and short dates pile up. Ask what counts as an 'appearance' |
| Stage-wise fixed fee | One agreed figure per stage: notice, mediation, filing, pleadings, evidence, arguments, and sometimes execution | Most commercial suits, in the district courts and in the High Court | Check what each stage covers, and what you owe if the case ends halfway through one |
| Monthly retainer | A fixed sum every month for an agreed amount of work. Anything extra is billed separately | Businesses with several recovery files or a steady flow of contract work | Pin down the scope. A retainer that 'covers everything' almost never does |
| Hourly billing | Each person's time is logged and charged at an agreed rate | Bigger companies with in-house legal teams, and complex High Court matters | Ask for a time report every month and an estimate for each stage |
| Consultation fee | A one-off fee for reading your papers and giving first advice | Any business that hasn't yet decided whether to litigate | Ask if it's adjusted against later fees once you engage the lawyer |
| Contingency or share of recovery | The fee depends on winning, or is a cut of whatever is recovered | Advocates can't do this. Rule 20 of the Bar Council of India Rules forbids it | Take any such offer as a sign to look elsewhere |
Per-appearance fees: simple, until the adjournments start
Paying per appearance is the oldest arrangement in the Delhi courts, and you'll still meet it in every district complex from Tis Hazari to Saket. You pay an agreed sum each time your advocate appears, and separate sums for drafting. It's simple. In a month where nothing happens, you pay nothing. The trouble is that commercial suits throw up a lot of short dates. There's a date for service, one for completing pleadings, one for admission and denial of documents, a case management hearing under Order XV-A of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC), and then a long run of evidence dates. Some of those get adjourned without anything being done at all.
If you go this way, ask three questions. Does a date that's simply adjourned (say the judge is on leave) count as a full appearance? Is a routine date covered by a junior priced differently from a real hearing argued by the principal advocate? And how are dates before a Local Commissioner charged? In the Delhi High Court, evidence is often recorded before one. Get straight answers and the model works.
Stage-wise fees: the one most businesses can budget
Under this arrangement you and the lawyer agree a figure for each stage, paid at or before the start of that stage. For a plaintiff, a typical split goes like this. The legal notice. Section 12A pre-institution mediation. Drafting and filing the plaint with documents and the statement of truth. Replication, and admission or denial of documents. Any interim application, such as an injunction or attachment before judgment. Evidence. Final arguments. A summary suit under Order XXXVII has fewer, shorter stages: the plaint, the summons for judgment, the reply to the leave to defend application, and then either a decree or a trial.
What you get is predictability. Before filing, you know roughly what the next stage will cost, and if a settlement comes along you can stop at the end of any stage. The weak spot is the edges. Write down what happens if the case settles halfway through a stage. Write down whether interim applications sit inside or outside the stage fee, and whether an appeal or execution counts as a fresh engagement. People forget execution more than anything else. A decree isn't money until it's executed under Order XXI, and execution of a decree carries its own fee.
There's a side benefit. Ask two lawyers to quote against the same list of stages and you can finally compare them line by line.
Retainers and hourly billing, for companies with regular work
Some businesses have disputes coming in every month. Think of a distributor with fifty dealers, or an equipment lessor sitting on a whole recovery book. A monthly retainer often makes sense for them. The lawyer takes on an agreed volume of work (notices, mediation applications, a set number of appearances) for a fixed monthly sum, and anything beyond that is billed separately. The business gets a legal budget it can predict, and the lawyer gets a steady relationship. The danger is vagueness. Put in writing exactly what the retainer covers: how many matters, which courts, and what's billed extra. A new suit, an urgent injunction or a High Court appeal usually is.
Hourly billing is more common with the big law firms, and with companies whose in-house teams are used to it. Each person's time is logged and billed at an agreed rate. It's transparent if the time records are detailed. If nobody's watching them, it gets expensive. Being billed by the hour? Ask for a monthly statement showing who worked, for how long and on what, plus an estimate per stage, so the total doesn't ambush your finance team.
What pushes the fee up or down?
Commercial court lawyer fees in Delhi vary a lot, and no honest guide can hand you a figure that fits your case. We won't try. What we can tell you is what moves the number. The forum is one thing. Work on the original side of the Delhi High Court, for suits above Rs 2 crore, generally costs more than district court work, partly because the stakes are higher and partly because of how evidence and hearings are run there. Urgency is another. An injunction application drafted and moved within 48 hours takes far more concentrated effort than a suit filed calmly after mediation.
The volume of evidence counts, especially where there's a pile of invoices, a technical fight over quality or software, or expert witnesses. So does the state of your papers. Frankly, that's the one you control. A business that walks in with a reconciled ledger, every invoice matched to its delivery challan and the emails in one clean bundle saves the lawyer days of sorting, and that can show up in the fee. Location matters if the case is filed outside Delhi, in Ghaziabad, Surajpur, Gurugram or Faridabad. Travel time is real. And if a senior advocate is going to be briefed for arguments, the picture changes considerably.
Senior counsel, clerkage and the people behind your advocate
In bigger High Court matters, your advocate may suggest briefing a senior advocate for the hearings that count most, like the injunction application or final arguments. A senior appears with an instructing advocate, so you pay both. There's the senior's fee for the appearance and any conference to prepare, and there's your own advocate's fee for preparing the brief and attending. Talk about this at the start. Get a rough idea of which hearings might need a senior, so the cost doesn't land on you the week before arguments.
Some Delhi chambers also add a clerk's charge, known as clerkage. It pays for the clerk's running around: filing, inspection, getting certified copies, keeping an eye on the cause list. It's an old practice in the Delhi courts and you shouldn't be thrown by it. Ask whether it applies, whether it's a fixed figure or a percentage of the fee, and get it written down with the rest. Juniors who attend routine dates are normally covered by the principal advocate's fee. Confirm that too.
Costs that aren't the lawyer's fee
If a fee quote doesn't list the outside costs, it's incomplete. Court fee is usually the biggest. It's charged ad valorem on the value of the claim under whichever court fee law applies in the state. Delhi follows the Court Fees Act, 1870 as amended for Delhi, while Uttar Pradesh and Haryana have their own schedules, so check the current schedule before you file. Then there's the Section 12A mediation fee under the 2018 Rules, usually split between the parties. After that come process fee and service costs, typing, printing and paper-books, notary and oath commissioner charges, certified copies, a Local Commissioner's fee where evidence is recorded before one, travel to courts outside your city, and whatever an expert or translator charges.
We've set these out in detail, with a worked budget, in our guide on what a commercial court case costs in Delhi. For now the point is simple. Ask your lawyer to put them in the fee note as separate lines, with estimates wherever possible. Then you're looking at the whole bill. Not half of it.
Where fees come up over the life of a suit
| Stage | Usual time | Costs outside the lawyer's fee | How the lawyer usually bills it |
|---|---|---|---|
| First meeting and reading of your papers | 1 to 7 days | Nothing | A consultation fee, often adjusted if you engage the lawyer |
| Legal notice and reply | 2 to 4 weeks | Courier and printing | A fixed drafting fee |
| Section 12A pre-institution mediation | Up to 3 months, plus 2 more if both sides agree | Mediation fee under the 2018 Rules, normally shared | A stage fee, or a fee per session |
| Plaint, documents and statement of truth | 1 to 3 weeks once your papers are complete | Ad valorem court fee (check the current schedule) | A stage fee for drafting and filing |
| Interim application (injunction, attachment) | A few days to a few weeks, depending on urgency | Court fee on the application, where it applies | A separate stage fee, or per hearing |
| Pleadings, admission and denial, case management | 2 to 8 months | Copying, affidavits, inspection | A stage fee or per appearance |
| Evidence | 6 months to 2 years | Local Commissioner fee in the Delhi High Court where one is appointed, and witness costs | A stage fee, per effective hearing, or hourly |
| Final arguments and judgment | Weeks to months | Written submissions, certified copies | A stage fee |
| Appeal under Section 13 (60 days to file) | Months to years | Court fee on the appeal | Usually a fresh engagement |
| Execution under Order XXI | Meant to be decided within 6 months, often takes longer | Process, attachment and sale costs | Usually a fresh engagement or a stage fee |
What the rules actually say about fees
Rule 20, Bar Council of India Rules (Part VI, Chapter II)
An advocate can't stipulate for a fee that depends on the result of the litigation, or agree to take a share of the proceeds. That rules out percentage-of-recovery fees and success bonuses for any advocate appearing in court.
Rule 36, Bar Council of India Rules
Advocates aren't allowed to advertise or solicit work. That's why law firm websites, this one included, explain how fees are structured but don't publish amounts or promise outcomes.
Section 35, Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (as amended for commercial disputes)
In commercial suits, costs include reasonable legal fees and expenses. The general rule is that the losing side pays the winner's costs, though the court can depart from it if it records reasons. Keep your fee invoices and receipts. You'll need them to claim.
GST on legal services
If you're a business entity, GST on legal services from an advocate or a firm of advocates is generally paid by you, the client, under the reverse charge mechanism, usually at 18 percent. Business entities below the registration turnover threshold are exempt. Your accountant should confirm the current treatment.
Can you get your lawyer's fees back from the other side?
Partly. And it happens more in commercial suits than in ordinary civil ones. Section 35 of the CPC, as substituted for commercial disputes by the Commercial Courts Act, 2015, makes reasonable legal fees part of the costs a court can award, and sets the general rule that the loser pays. How much you get depends on conduct, partial success and any settlement offer that was turned down. The Delhi High Court in particular has awarded actual costs in commercial matters where a party's behaviour justified it.
Two practical things follow. Keep every fee invoice and receipt from day one, because costs you can't prove are rarely awarded. And a clear fee structure helps you here too. A stage-wise invoice for 'drafting and filing of plaint' is far easier to put before a judge than one lump payment nobody can explain. Our guide on actual costs in a commercial court and who pays them explains how to claim them.
How to agree a fee before you hire anyone
A short routine that leaves you with a fee you can budget for and compare.
Have your papers actually read
Ask for a consultation where the lawyer reads the agreement, the invoices and the correspondence. A fee quoted without reading the file is a guess. You can't hold anyone to a guess.
Ask what stages lie ahead
Mediation, a summary suit or a regular suit, interim applications, evidence. Which of these are realistically coming? The fee should track that plan.
Get the fee in writing, stage by stage
An email or engagement letter should list each stage, its fee, when it's due, and what's in and what's out. Don't sign the vakalatnama until you've got it.
Ask for outside costs on a separate list
Court fee, mediation fee, process fee, Local Commissioner fee, travel and senior counsel. Each one with an estimate, where that's possible.
Sort out the awkward cases
What if the case settles mid-stage? What if you change lawyers, the other side files an appeal, or you end up needing execution? Write the answers down.
Plan for GST and TDS
Check with your accountant how GST under reverse charge, and any tax deducted at source on professional fees, will be handled under current law. That way your payments get booked correctly.
Comparing two lawyers? Hand both the same list of stages and ask each to quote against it. Then you're comparing like with like. For a longer list of things to raise in that meeting, see our guide on the questions to ask a commercial court lawyer before hiring.
What the fee letter should say
- Which advocate is responsible for your matter, and who else will be working on it
- The structure you've picked (per appearance, stage-wise, retainer or hourly) and the figure for each part of it
- When each payment falls due and how you'll be invoiced
- What each stage includes, and which applications or hearings fall outside it
- Whether an appeal, execution or a counterclaim is covered, or is a separate engagement
- The outside costs, on their own list, with estimates where possible
- Whether a senior advocate might be briefed, and how that decision and that fee will be handled
- What happens to the fees if the matter settles, gets withdrawn, or you move to another lawyer
Does the Delhi High Court cost more than a district court, or a court outside Delhi?
Where the suit is filed makes a real difference to lawyer fees in Delhi and NCR. Commercial suits from Rs 3 lakh up to Rs 2 crore go to a District Judge (Commercial Court) in one of the Delhi district complexes, whether that's Tis Hazari, Saket, Karkardooma, Rohini, Dwarka or Patiala House. Above Rs 2 crore, they go to the Commercial Division of the Delhi High Court. In July 2026 the Full Court of the Delhi High Court recommended raising the district court limit to Rs 10 crore. That needs an amendment to the Delhi High Court Act. So check the current limit. High Court work generally costs more per stage, and the court fee is higher in absolute terms simply because the claims are bigger. Our page for a commercial court lawyer in Delhi covers the work in both forums.
In Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, commercial suits go to whichever court is designated as the Commercial Court for the district, such as the courts at Ghaziabad, Surajpur for Gautam Buddh Nagar, Gurugram and Faridabad. If your lawyer sits in Delhi and the case is filed in one of these, ask how travel time is charged. Ask too whether a local associate will cover routine dates. Our page on which court will hear your commercial case explains how to work out the right court for your dispute.
A made-up example: two quotes that looked different but weren't
This one is invented, not a client's story. A garment exporter in Okhla Phase III is owed Rs 72 lakh by a buying house in Shahpur Jat for shipments made under a written agreement. It meets two lawyers and comes away with two quotes.
The first is a per-appearance fee, with separate drafting fees for the plaint and replies. On paper it looks cheap. The second is stage-wise. It covers mediation, the plaint, the summons for judgment and the reply to any leave to defend application, quotes evidence and arguments as later stages, and leaves execution out. The exporter's finance head asks both lawyers how many hearings are likely before the court decides on leave to defend. Both say somewhere between six and twelve, depending on adjournments.
The finance head lays the per-appearance quote against that range. For the first year, the two come out close. But the stage-wise figure is fixed, and the per-appearance one could grow with every adjournment. The second lawyer's letter also lists the court fee, the mediation fee and an estimate for copying and printing, and confirms that the exporter will pay GST under reverse charge. The exporter picks the stage-wise structure. Not because it was cheaper. Because it could be budgeted and explained to the board.
Which fee structure suits which business
The right way to pay commercial court lawyer fees depends on who you are. A startup or small MSME with tight cash flow usually does best on a stage-wise fee. Each payment is tied to a step it can see, and at each step it can decide whether to carry on. A registered micro or small supplier should also price a commercial suit against a reference to the MSME Facilitation Council. Filing there costs little, and statutory interest at three times the RBI bank rate runs in the supplier's favour. That comparison can change the whole budget. A trading business with lots of small recovery files may find a retainer easier to run than a fresh engagement for each one.
A large company with an in-house legal team will often want hourly billing with monthly reports, or a stage-wise fee with a cap. It'll want the fee letter to fit its procurement process as well. Defendants are in a different spot. The written statement deadline is already running, so there's less time to haggle over structure. A defendant should still get the fee for the defence stage in writing before work starts, and settle the rest within the first few weeks. Advocate B.K. Singh's advice to defendants is practical. Fix the written statement stage now, and fix the later stages once the plaintiff's documents have been read, because only then do you know how big the defence will be. How our own team discusses and records fees is set out in how fees are discussed and agreed with Advocate B.K. Singh's team.
What to do this week
Get your papers in order before you talk money. That means the agreement, invoices, ledger, emails and any notice. A clean file gets you a more accurate fee. Then ask every lawyer you meet for a written fee note against the same list of stages, with outside costs listed separately and the awkward cases answered. If anyone offers to work for a share of the recovery, walk away.
If your claim is headed for the district commercial courts or the Delhi High Court, our commercial court lawyer in Delhi page walks through the stages a fee will need to cover. The commercial court services page lists the kinds of disputes we take on. We discuss fees at the first meeting and agree them in writing, stage by stage.
Want a fee plan built around your actual papers? Send them to Advocate B.K. Singh's team through the contact page.
Frequently asked questions
Can a lawyer in India charge a percentage of the money recovered?
No. Rule 20 of the Bar Council of India Rules bars an advocate from fixing a fee that depends on how the case turns out, or from taking a share of what's recovered. You pay for the work. Not for the result.
Is it normal to pay the lawyer's fee in advance?
Paying for a stage at or before the start of that stage is normal. Paying for the whole case upfront isn't, and we wouldn't advise it, because the case may settle early. A stage-wise schedule protects both of you.
Why don't lawyers publish their fees on their websites?
Bar Council of India rules restrict advocates from advertising and soliciting work, so most don't publish amounts. And fees depend heavily on the forum, the urgency and how much evidence there is, which only becomes clear once someone has read the papers. Ask for a written quote after the first consultation.
Does the lawyer's fee include court fee?
No. Court fee is a government charge paid to the court, worked out on the value of your claim under the state's court fee law. Show it as its own line in your budget, along with the mediation fee, process fee and the other costs.
Do I pay GST on my lawyer's fees?
If you're a business entity, generally yes. It's paid by you under reverse charge, usually at 18 percent, and you may be able to claim input tax credit. Small businesses below the registration threshold are generally exempt. Check the current position with your accountant.
What happens to the fee if the case settles in mediation?
Whatever your fee letter says. That's exactly why it should say something. On a stage-wise structure you'd normally pay only for the stages completed, sometimes plus an agreed amount for work on the settlement document. Agree this before you start.
Is a senior advocate's fee included in my lawyer's quote?
Usually not. If a senior is briefed for a hearing, their fee is separate, and your own advocate's fee for preparing and attending still runs. Ask at the outset whether a senior might be needed, and for which hearings.
Can I switch from a per-appearance fee to a stage-wise fee midway through a case?
Yes, if your lawyer agrees. It often makes sense when a case that looked short turns into a full contested trial. Put the new arrangement in writing, including how the stages already done will be treated.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, district and commercial courts in Delhi NCR, and tribunals.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.