The out-of-court half of the German tariff is structurally opposite to the in-court half: § 4 RVG explicitly liberalises out-of-court fees, so the Geschäftsgebühr (Nr. 2300 VV RVG) is a range 0,5 – 2,5 with a 1,3 Schwellengebühr rather than a single binding figure. Consumer-facing advisory work is additionally capped by § 34 RVG — Erstberatung at 190 € net, advice or written opinion at 250 € net. None of the four cases on this page involves a court being seized, so no GKG or FamGKG court fee arises; the calculator returns zero on the state side and the breakdown shows only the RVG side, plus 19% USt where applicable. This is the part of the German tariff where the lawyer and the client may genuinely contract — a freedom that, on the litigation side, § 49b Abs. 1 BRAO removes entirely.
Out-of-court representation
Pre-litigation representation in a contested matter — a Mahnschreiben (formal demand), Anwaltsschreiben replying to a counterparty, negotiation of a disputed claim, regulatory correspondence, debt collection short of court action. The Geschäftsgebühr under Nr. 2300 VV RVG carries a factor range of 0,5 to 2,5; the 1,3 Schwellengebühr is the practical default, with a factor above 1,3 reserved for matters that are objectively “umfangreich oder schwierig” (extensive or difficult).
You instruct counsel for out-of-court representation when a written demand from a lawyer is a meaningful escalation step short of suing — most commonly in commercial collections, contract disputes, consumer-law claims, employment-law pre-action correspondence, and similar. The fee is freely negotiable under § 4 RVG; the figure the calculator returns is the indicative Anlage-2 computation at the chosen factor, not a binding minimumA tariff floor a court could once not go below. Several EU jurisdictions abandoned binding minimums after CJEU rulings; where that has happened, the same figures now serve only as reference values.Glossary →.
Lawyer fee — Nr. 2300 VV RVG. The Anlage 2 1,0-Gebühr at the GegenstandswertThe value of the matter under German law (RVG), used to look up the statutory fee. Closely related to Streitwert but also applies outside contentious proceedings.Glossary → times the chosen Geschäftsgebühr factor (range 0,5 – 2,5; default 1,3 Schwellengebühr); plus Auslagenpauschale (Nr. 7002, 20% of the fees, capped at 20 €) and 19% USt (Nr. 7008). State court fee — none. No court is seized in out-of-court representation; the GKG/FamGKG do not apply and no state fee arises. If the matter later escalates to litigation, the combined-flow case type (civil_claim_combined_anrechnung) handles the Anrechnung credit of this fee against the subsequent Nr. 3100 Verfahrensgebühr under Vorbem. 3 Abs. 4 VV RVG.
Settlement (Einigung)
The Einigungsgebühr is the fee for bringing about a binding settlement of a disputed matter. Two factors apply: Nr. 1000 (factor 1,5) for a settlement reached before court proceedings are pending — i.e. while the matter is still purely out of court — and Nr. 1003 (factor 1,0) when the settlement is reached after a court action is already pending. The Einigungsgebühr is additional to any Verfahrens- or Geschäftsgebühr already earned in the matter; it is the lawyer’s reward for the result, not a substitute for the underlying work.
You see Nr. 1000 used in standalone out-of-court mediation and negotiated commercial settlements that resolve the matter before any Klage is filed. Nr. 1003 covers the very common pattern where a litigation case settles after the action is filed but before judgment — a court-recorded Vergleich or a Schriftsatz under § 278 Abs. 6 ZPO.
Lawyer fee — Nr. 1000, 1003 VV RVG. The Anlage 2 1,0-Gebühr at the value of the settled matter times 1,5 (Nr. 1000, no court proceedings pending) or 1,0 (Nr. 1003, proceedings pending); plus Auslagenpauschale and 19% USt. The Einigungsgebühr stacks on the Geschäftsgebühr (if Nr. 2300 was earned) or the Verfahrensgebühr (if Nr. 3100 was earned on a related litigation), not in place of them. State court fee — none. The Einigungsgebühr is a lawyer fee. An out-of-court settlement triggers no GKG fee at all. A settlement within pending litigation does carry a court fee, but that fee belongs to the underlying litigation case type (the civil 3,0 reduces to 1,0, Nr. 1211; divorce 2,0 to 0,5, Nr. 1111; labour fee waived entirely under Vorbem. 8 KV GKG) — it is not a fee of the standalone settlement case-id shown here.
Compute this case in the calculatorFirst consultation (consumer)
Erstberatung — a consumer’s first consultation with a lawyer on a discrete matter. § 34 Abs. 1 Satz 3 RVG caps the fee at 190 € net (226,10 € gross with 19% USt) when the client is a consumer (Verbraucher within the meaning of § 13 BGB). The cap is a ceiling, not a fixed price; the lawyer may charge less but, for consumers, not more for the first consultation as such. For businesses (Unternehmer) and on subsequent consultations within the same matter the cap does not apply and the fee is freely negotiable under § 34 RVG.
You take a first consultation when you want a lawyer’s initial read on a specific problem — a contract you have been handed, a dismissal you have received, a damage claim someone has raised — before deciding whether to instruct further. If subsequent work is instructed and the lawyer takes the matter on, the first-consultation fee may be set off (angerechnet) against the later Geschäftsgebühr or Verfahrensgebühr per § 34 Abs. 2 RVG.
Lawyer fee — § 34 Abs. 1 RVG. A flat consumer cap of 190 € net (Erstberatung, Verbraucher); plus 19% USt (Nr. 7008) → ≤ 226,10 € gross. No factor and no value-table lookup — the cap is the figure. State court fee — none. Pure advisory work; no court is seized and the GKG does not apply.
Compute this case in the calculatorLegal advice or written opinion (consumer)
Beratung (oral advice beyond the Erstberatung) or a schriftliches Gutachten (a written legal opinion) for a consumer client. § 34 Abs. 1 Satz 3 RVG caps the fee at 250 € net (297,50 € gross with 19% USt). The same § 13 BGB consumer-definition applies, and the cap is a ceiling — the lawyer may charge less but, on a consumer matter, not more for a Beratung or schriftliches Gutachten as such. For business clients the cap does not apply and the fee is set under § 34 Abs. 1 Satz 1 RVG by agreement, or in its absence by the BGB-Vergütungsregeln.
You commission a written opinion when you need a documented legal position for an external purpose — a board, an insurer, a counterparty, a tax authority — or an actionable summary of the law as it applies to a concrete fact pattern. Beratung covers more in-depth oral consultation than the introductory Erstberatung allows.
Lawyer fee — § 34 Abs. 1 RVG. A flat consumer cap of 250 € net (Beratung oder schriftliches Gutachten, Verbraucher); plus 19% USt (Nr. 7008) → ≤ 297,50 € gross. State court fee — none. Pure advisory work; no court is seized and the GKG does not apply.
Compute this case in the calculatorThis page is the freely-negotiable half of the German tariff. Under § 4 RVG the four cases here are not bound by a statutory minimum — the Nr. 2300 Geschäftsgebühr is a range 0,5–2,5 with a 1,3 Schwellengebühr, the Einigungsgebühr stacks at 1,5 (Nr. 1000) or 1,0 (Nr. 1003) on the underlying fees, and § 34 RVG caps consumer advisory work at 190 € net (first consultation) and 250 € net (advice or written opinion). Contrast the four litigation case types and the three family/labour/administrative case types, where § 49b Abs. 1 BRAO turns the RVG figure into a binding statutory minimum instead. No state court fee arises on any of the four cases on this page — no court is seized, so the GKG/FamGKG do not apply. All RVG amounts shown are net of 19% USt (Nr. 7008 VV RVG). See the methodology page for the full encoding rules.