Businessman Édgar Darío Velazco González, president of the companies Credi Cifra and All Motors SA, has denounced unequal criteria applied by Paraguay's Judicial Branch in the regulation of attorney's fees within the same lawsuit.
The case refers to a lawsuit filed by All Motors SA against Albino Gustavo Jara Gomes and others for breach of contract, with an estimated value of US$1.36 million, equivalent to approximately G. 9.7 billion in October 2022.
Initially, Judge José Guillermo Trovato Fleitas of the First Instance Civil and Commercial Court set the fees for lawyers Milner Sosa and Dulce Sosa at 10% and 5% of the case's value, respectively. This resulted in total amounts of G. 474 million for Milner and G. 237 million for Dulce, including preliminary injunctions and VAT.
The Court of Appeal in Civil and Commercial Matters reassessed the amounts, upholding the original percentages by a majority vote but recalculating the figures to G. 296 million for Milner Sosa and G. 148 million for Dulce Sosa. One of the appellate judges, Hugo Garcete, dissented and proposed lower percentages: 5% for the lead counsel and 2.5% for the attorney of record.
Velazco criticized the disparity, alleging that the calculations did not follow Law No. 1,376/88, which sets limits for fees in judicial proceedings. He stated that the professionals worked on only one of the three stages of the lawsuit and that the amounts should be proportional to the work actually performed.
The businessman also compared the conduct to a "fee mafia" and accused magistrates of misconduct, pointing out that in another stage of the same lawsuit, fees were calculated significantly differently for another lawyer involved.