The Tribune

By Neil Hartnell

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian citizens and companies must brace for double-digit percentage hikes in the minimum fees charged for virtually all commercial and civil legal services with effect from New Year’s Day 2026 - a move sparking mixed opinions and divided reactions among attorneys themselves.

Multiple senior attorneys, speaking on condition of anonymity, yesterday told Tribune Business that the Bahamas Bar Association’s December 3, 2025, memorandum setting out new minimum recommended rates for services such as real estate conveyances, wills, trusts, Immigration work permits and company incorporations has sparked questions over how the new charges were derived, whether there was due consultation and if the new levies schedule itself is even legal.

The Bar Association, in unveiling the new rates, said they were designed to account for the impact of inflation since the last adjustment took place in November 2006 - almost two decades ago. It added that the latest revisions, which are set to take effect in just over three weeks’ time, also include new minimum per hour and per day rates specifically for King’s Counsels or KCs.

Disclosing that the new rates are based on research by an accounting firm, the Bar Association wrote: “The following [22] tables are prepared having regard to the memorandums from Oracle Business Partners, accountants, dated February 15, 2024, by which a review of the rates for counsel and attorney, set out in the November 2, 2006, memo take into account inflation up to 2022.”

Explaining that data on Bahamian inflation for 2023 and 2024 had not been available when the review was conducted, the Association added in the memo obtained by Tribune Business: “In addition, having regard to local allowances, custom and practice, hourly rates for King's Counsel have been introduced. Kindly take notice that the effective commencement date is the first day of January 2026.”

The fee schedule detailed in the Bar Association’s memorandum sets a floor, or minimum fee scale, that Bahamian attorneys should charge but does not prevent them from levying higher rates. The concern, at least from a public perspective, is that lower and middle income Bahamians could be priced out of accessing critical legal advice when it comes to their likely biggest investment, buying a home, and in areas such as estate planning.

As an example, while attorney fees on residential real estate transactions are typically equal to 2.5 percent of the purchase price, the Bar Association memorandum sets out significant increases. For property conveyances of “unregistered land”, the fee is doubled to 5 percent of the purchase price, while for “registered land” it is being raised to 3.5 percent - the references to “registered” land likely linking to the Government’s recent land reforms.

Elsewhere, the Bar Association’s updated minimum fees raise the cost of drawing a will or codicil by almost 73 percent - from $202.40 in 2006 to $350 with effect from New Year’s Day 2026. And the minimum charge for administering someone’s estate, including resealing, is rising almost 40 percent - from $607.30 to the new $850 - where the gross value involved is $100,000 or less.

The minimum fees for satisfying a mortgage or debenture are to increase from $151.80 in 2006 to $250, a 64.7 percent jump, while those for the release of a mortgage or conveyance are to rise by 42 percent from $404.90 to $575. Fees for preparing affidavits are also rising, from $101.20 to $150, while those for power of attorney are set to rise by almost $100 - from $303.70 to $400.

As for Immigration matters, the minimum fees will rise across all permit and residency categories. As examples, the levy for work permit applications will from New Year’s Day be set at $1,125 compared to the prevailing $809.80, while the charge for permanent residency and citizenship applications is set to rise by $450 - going from the $1.124.70 set in 2006 to the new $1,675.

As for the recommended rates for per hour billing by attorneys, those for counsel with up to three years standing are to increase by between 76.4 percent and 94 percent - rising from $141.70 to between $250-$275 per hour. For attorneys with more than 20 years’ standing, these per hour fees will rise by between 48.2 percent and 77.8 percent - jumping from $506.10 to between $750 to $900.

And, on a daily or per diem basis, the rates for attorneys with up to three years’ standing at the Bar are set to double through increasing from the present recommended minimum of $1,012.20 to between $2,000-$2,200 - a rise of between 97.5 percent to 117.3 percent. For attorneys with more than 20 years’ standing, their daily recommended minimum rate is to rise by between 48.2 percent and 77.8 percent, surging from $4,048.90 to $6,000-$7,000 come New Year’s Day.

Corporate Bahamas, too, will not be immune. Minimum company incorporation fees are to increase by 38.9 percent to $2.250, with the cost of obtaining a bank and trust company licence set to rise 38.3 percent to $14,000 as opposed to the present $10,122.40. Obtaining an Insurance Act licence, including company incorporation, will result in minimum legal fees rising from $8,097.90 to $11,250.

Multiple Tribune Business sources said the legal profession’s reaction to the new minimum recommended fees has been mixed. “There has been quite a lot of feedback. Some attorneys are in favour, some are against. There’s various What’s App messages going around among attorneys,” one contact, speaking on condition of anonymity, told this newspaper.

The initial minimum recommended legal fees were released in 1984, and only adjusted for the first time in 2006 to account for inflation during those 22 intervening years. The latest missive by the Bar Association thus marks only the second time these have been changed in four decades - some 41 years - and will likely come as an unexpected and unpleasant shock to some clients.

However, some attorneys yesterday questioned how the new fees have been calculated, and argued that cross-border comparisons with other jurisdictions should have been taken into account as well as inflation so as to maintain The Bahamas’ competitiveness as an international financial centre (IFC). Some even asserted that they had been blindsided by the Bar Association announcement, and queried whether there had been any consultation.

And questions were even raised over whether the minimum recommended fee schedule released by the Bar Association is legal. At least two senior attorneys pointed to the Legal Profession Act’s section 28, which seems to prohibit this by saying: “Nothing in this Act shall be construed as, or have the effect, of authorising the imposition or sanction by the Bar Association or Bar Council of a minimum scale of fees for services rendered by a counsel or attorney.”

One leading attorney added: “One of the points is that I think there’s a provision in the Legal Profession Act that actually makes it unlawful to prescribe minimum fees. These are minimum and have been prescribed as guidance. I’m not sure whether, as a matter of interpretation, what they’ve done affects the provisions of the statute.

“There is a conversation among various members of the Bar over the process that went into updating the minimum recommended fees and rates, how it was done and what are the adjustments actually based on. Typically, if you are going to do this, one expects the reasons for the adjustments to be more clearly explained to practitioners and the public.

“These guidelines, to the extent they are relied on by practitioners to charge the public, if it extends beyond the reach of the profession, then the public deserves to be engaged in this process. Transparency and rational principles apply to explain why this is needed.”

Another senior attorney said the newly-recommended 5 percent and 3.5 percent fees for real estate conveyances represented a legal profession dream rather than reality. “It’s a joke,” they charged. “There’s no sense getting excited by that. We can’t get more than 2 percent now on real estate. It’s wonderful, but we’re not going to get it. We can only get what the market can bear.

“We’ll never get 3.5 percent for conveyancing. We’re not getting 2.5 percent now. We’re only getting 2 percent at best.” One senior attorney, echoing similar sentiments, said the profession’s present real estate conveyancing fee charges start at 2.5 percent of the purchase price and then “go down on a sliding scale as the price goes up to 1 percent”.

They added that some attorneys were seeking a higher percentage to bring them into line with the 6 percent commission earned by Bahamian realtors on property sales, which increases to 10 percent for the latter if it is vacant land, but warned: “It’s going to make it so expensive for someone to buy a property. Are realtors going to lower their fees?

“At the KC level it’s under heavy discussion. There’s not a whole lot in favour of it. No one knows where this came from and, quite frankly, some people are astonished. I don’t think it was discussed ever. I think the sole practitioners are for it, but we should have comparisons with rates for the big firms against Cayman and other jurisdictions. What are the rates in the market? The market sets the rates. It’s a free market.

“These [the minimum fees] are really a guide for taxation. When you win a case, the court has some guide as to what people can claim on their bill of costs. It does need to be resolved. The question is: Are the figures too high? They seem high compared to other jurisdictions.”

One attorney, speaking in favour of the revised fees, said there had been “numerous meetings” about them at the Bar Council. “I think it’s needed,” they said. ”Litigators need it because when they go to court they are faced with the courts using that scale as a reference [for cost awards].

“For property attorneys, when you talk to them privately, they are complaining that realtors take 6-10 percent for doing nothing. Secretly, they are happy…. This is a way for the Bar to attempt to regulate itself given the criticism we’ve run into with compliance on real estate and the cost issue with taxation on bills. We can’t be the ones doing the compliance and not getting paid.

“It’s going to be interesting. Change is necessary. When you compare it [the new fee schedule] to other jurisdictions it’s not that bad. I remember looking at a bill from someone in Cayman a few years ago. I was at $400-$500, and the one from Cayman was charging $800. It was double.”