It seems that Poland has a similar solution* - there are fixed rates and a losing party covers the fees up to that fixed rates. That is anyone is free to hire a

It seems that Poland has a similar solution* - there are fixed rates and a losing party covers the fees up to that fixed rates. That is anyone is free to hire a lawyer at any rate but the loosing party will have to cover the costs but not more that those fixed rates, so effectively those rates are an upper treshold for repaying legal costs. Additionally a judge may decide that a loosing party does not have to cover those costs - depending on their financial situation (this is a bit more complicated, but since I am not a lawyer I don't know the details here) *I'm quite sure that this solution in Polish legal system was modelled after the German law.