Minister of Justice Mamdouh Marie surprised the People's Assembly (PA) yesterday and approved the increase in legal fees five times only as opposed to the ten times that was suggested by the government in the draft law. On the other hand, thousands of lawyers staged a strike yesterday in Cairo and nationwide in protest against the bill, calling for withdrawing it from parliament. Marie said he reached this "compromise" after he listened to the points of view of the majority, opposition and independents. The MPs welcomed the minister's initiative and agreed to his proposal on reducing the fees.
The Minister of Justice has decided to exempt the first LE10,000 and impose a percentage of 1.25% on sums till LE30,000. He has also agreed in principle to reduce the maximum fees from LE100,000 to LE70,000. The People's Assembly (parliament) Speaker Fathi Sorour has postponed the discussion of this article to a coming meeting.
Well-informed sources revealed that Sorour held a closed-door meeting with Marie before the plenary meeting yesterday to reach a solution for the crisis of the bill. Sorour told Marie that the bill turned into a legal and political crisis.
Sorour called on the minister and his aides, who attended the meeting, to review the fees. Independent MPs Alaa Abdel Moneim and Talaat Sadat and the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) MPs Amaal Othman, Omar al-Tahir, Ibrahim al-Gogary and Omar Haridi attended the meeting and backed Sorour. Abdel-Moneim explained that the fees increased from LE43 in the current law to LE37,500 in the proposed law to claim LE1-million in compensation.
The Minister of Justice argued with the MPs till it was agreed to collect 0.5% of the fees. This practically means that the fees hiked from LE43 to LE900 in case of claiming LE1-million compensation.
