Three court tiers that share the RVG factor pattern (Nr. 3100 Verfahrensgebühr + Nr. 3104 Terminsgebühr) but sit in different procedural worlds — the Familiengericht (a Familiensenat of the Amtsgericht) for divorce, the Arbeitsgericht for labour disputes, and the Verwaltungsgericht for administrative review. Each comes with a bespoke StreitwertThe value in dispute under Austrian and German law — the figure the fee scale is read against. Equivalent to material interest.Glossary →-determination rule on the state side: § 43 FamGKG (three months of combined net income) for divorce, § 42 Abs. 2 GKG (a quarter-year’s gross salary) for Kündigungsschutz, and § 52 GKG (with the 5.000 € Auffangwert) for administrative-court matters. The labour court carries Germany’s most distinctive procedural feature — § 12a Abs. 1 ArbGG, which bars first-instance cost-shifting of lawyer fees regardless of outcome.
Divorce
The divorce proceeding (Ehesache) runs before the Familiengericht — formally a senate of the Amtsgericht — under the FamFG procedure. Each spouse is normally represented; the lawyer fee on this page is one party’s bill, not the joint cost. The Verfahrenswert is set under § 43 FamGKG: by default three months of the combined net income of both spouses, clamped to the range 3.000 € to 1.000.000 €. Optional Folgesachen (consequential matters) raise that Verfahrenswert before the table lookup — Versorgungsausgleich (§ 50 FamGKG: 10% of the three-month income per Anrecht), Unterhalt (§ 51 FamGKG: twelve months of the demanded maintenance), and Güterrecht/Zugewinn (§ 35 FamGKG: the claimed amount).
You file it when the marriage has broken down and the one-year separation requirement of § 1565 BGB is satisfied. Both spouses agree on the substantive divorce in most German Ehesachen; the procedural complexity (and the fee) comes from any Folgesachen attached.
Lawyer fee — Nr. 3100, 3104 VV RVG. The Anlage 2 1,0-Gebühr at the Verfahrenswert (derived from the income and any Folgesachen, then clamped to § 43 Abs. 1 FamGKG’s [3.000 €, 1.000.000 €]) times the factors 1,3 + 1,2; plus Auslagenpauschale and 19% USt. State court fee — Nr. 1110, 1111 KV FamGKG; § 43 FamGKG. The GKG/FamGKG Anlage 2 court 1,0-Gebühr at the same Verfahrenswert times 2,0 (Nr. 1110) — the court fee is owed once for the proceeding, not per spouse. Reduces to 0,5 (Nr. 1111) on termination by withdrawal, acknowledgement or court settlement — a smaller residual than the civil 1,0 reduction.
Compute this case in the calculatorLabour dispute, first instance
First-instance labour disputes are heard by the Arbeitsgericht — a specialised court with a lay-judge bench, one judge from the employer side and one from the employee side, plus the presiding professional judge. The dominant case type is Kündigungsschutzklage (action against a dismissal), but the same forum handles wage claims, working-time disputes, holiday-pay disputes and similar. The Streitwert for Kündigungsschutz is capped by § 42 Abs. 2 GKG at three months of the gross monthly salary, severance excluded.
You file Kündigungsschutzklage within three weeks of receiving the dismissal letter (§ 4 KSchG) — the deadline is strict and uncurable. Wage claims and similar follow the ordinary limitation periods.
Lawyer fee — Nr. 3100, 3104 VV RVG. The Anlage 2 1,0-Gebühr at the Streitwert (typically 3 × monthly gross for Kündigungsschutz) times the factors 1,3 + 1,2; plus Auslagenpauschale and 19% USt. State court fee — Nr. 8210 KV GKG; Vorbem. 8 KV GKG. The GKG Anlage 2 court 1,0-Gebühr at the Streitwert times 2,0 (Nr. 8210) — strictly lower than the 3,0 of the civil first instance — and waived entirely (entfällt) if the case ends in a court settlement (Vorbem. 8 KV GKG). Canonical Germany divergence — § 12a Abs. 1 ArbGG. In first-instance Urteilsverfahren the winning party has no claim for reimbursement of its lawyer’s fees regardless of the outcome. Each side carries its own RVG fee even if it wins; the loser-pays principleThe rule, common in Europe, that the unsuccessful party bears the other side's recoverable legal costs, usually capped by a costs-recovery scale rather than the actual fee charged.Glossary → does not apply to lawyer fees at the Arbeitsgericht (the court fee itself does cost-shift). This is the most distinctive cost-allocation rule in the German tariff and the reason employees with legal-expenses insurance or a union behind them are systematically over-represented in labour litigation.
Compute this case in the calculatorAdministrative court
The Verwaltungsgericht reviews acts of public authorities — refused permits, tax assessments under the AO (where the Finanzgericht has separate jurisdiction), benefit decisions, planning permissions, refusal of citizenship, asylum at the first administrative tier. The Streitwert is fixed under § 52 GKG: the financial significance of the matter to the claimant where that can be put on a number, or the 5.000 € Auffangwert under § 52 Abs. 2 GKG when no monetary value can be ascertained — the typical case for purely declaratory administrative challenges.
You file it within one month of formal notice of the Widerspruchsbescheid (final administrative decision after objection), or directly against acts where no Widerspruch is required. The RVG factor pattern is the same as the civil first instance — what differs is the value-determination rule and, on the state side, the KV row that applies.
Lawyer fee — Nr. 3100, 3104 VV RVG. The Anlage 2 1,0-Gebühr at the Streitwert (or the Auffangwert of 5.000 € where no monetary value can be ascertained) times the factors 1,3 + 1,2; plus Auslagenpauschale and 19% USt. State court fee — Nr. 5110, 5111 KV GKG; § 52 GKG. The GKG Anlage 2 court 1,0-Gebühr at the Streitwert times 3,0 (Nr. 5110) — the same multiplier as the civil first instance, but applied to the administrative-court Streitwert (often the 5.000 € Auffangwert in non-monetary cases). Reduces to 1,0 (Nr. 5111) on early termination.
Compute this case in the calculatorAll three cases on this page are court representation: the RVG fee is a binding statutory minimum under § 49b Abs. 1 BRAO — your lawyer may agree higher in writing (§ 3a RVG) but, by law, may not charge less. Tarifo’s usual “reference valuesA tariff figure that is advisory, not mandatory — a guide to what a fee customarily is, which the lawyer and client remain free to depart from. Every number Tarifo shows is a reference value.Glossary →, not floors” framing does not apply. The labour-court row carries an additional German peculiarity: § 12a Abs. 1 ArbGG bars cost-shifting of lawyer fees in first-instance proceedings — even the winning side bears its own RVG bill, while the state court fee (Nr. 8210) cost-shifts in the ordinary way and is waived entirely on a court settlement (Vorbem. 8 KV GKG). The divorce Verfahrenswert combines three months of combined net income with optional Folgesachen and is clamped by § 43 Abs. 1 FamGKG to [3.000 €, 1.000.000 €]; the administrative Streitwert defaults to the 5.000 € Auffangwert (§ 52 Abs. 2 GKG) when no monetary value applies. All RVG amounts shown are net of 19% USt (Nr. 7008 VV RVG); GKG/FamGKG court fees are not subject to USt. See the methodology page for the full encoding rules.