The mandate between you and your lawyer is a relationship of trust, and German law treats it that way. You can change lawyers at any point in a labor-court case — without the court’s permission, without giving reasons and without losing your case position; the real questions are what it costs, who pays for the overlap, and whether the timing is smart. Dismissal cases run on tight deadlines and settle at speed, so a mid-case switch needs to be executed cleanly: file handover, fee consequences, insurance cover and hearing dates all have to be managed in the right order. Here is how it works — and how to decide whether you actually need a new lawyer or just a better conversation with your current one.
Your right to switch
A legal mandate is a service engagement based on special trust — you may terminate it at any time (§ 627 BGB), with no notice period and no justification. Nobody can force you to stay with counsel you no longer trust. Three structural points make switching in labor cases comparatively easy:
- At the Arbeitsgericht in first instance there is no compulsory representation (§ 11 ArbGG) — a gap between lawyers does not paralyse the case procedurally.
- The case file, the claims and every deadline position stay exactly where they are. Switching changes your representative, not your case.
- Deadlines keep running regardless. A switch is never a reason for a missed deadline — which is why sequencing matters.
How the switch works
-
Engage the new lawyer first
Line up the successor before terminating anything: conflict check, engagement letter, and ideally a second-opinion review of the file so you switch on substance, not frustration.
-
Terminate the old mandate
A short written termination is enough — no reasons required. Alternatively the new lawyer announces the takeover and handles the correspondence.
-
File handover
The new lawyer requests the file (Handakte) from the old one. In practice this takes days, not weeks — electronic files travel fast.
-
Court and opponent are notified
The new lawyer files the notice of representation with the Arbeitsgericht; the old power of attorney is revoked. No court approval is involved.
-
Insurer or PKH office informed
Legal-expenses insurers want notice and — before the switch — a coverage confirmation for the new counsel. PKH cases need the court’s approval for the swap.
The file: handover duties and retention rights
Your old lawyer must surrender the file — the duty follows from the mandate (§ 667 BGB) and professional law (§ 50 BRAO). Original documents you provided must come back to you; the lawyer may keep copies. The friction point is the retention right: for unpaid fees, the old lawyer can in principle withhold the file — but not where withholding would be inappropriate under the circumstances (§ 50 Abs. 3 BRAO), for example with a court deadline looming. The pragmatic route in a dispute: pay the undisputed part of the invoice, get the file moving, and fight about the contested remainder separately. Do not let a fee quarrel burn a procedural deadline.
What it costs: the double-fee problem
RVG fees are earned per lawyer, not per case — that single sentence explains the entire cost risk of switching:
- The old lawyer keeps what is earned. The Verfahrensgebühr (procedural fee) arises with the first substantive activity on the court mandate; a Terminsgebühr (hearing fee) is earned for hearings attended. Termination does not refund earned fees.
- The new lawyer earns the same fees again. Above all a second full Verfahrensgebühr — the classic duplication.
- Some fees arise only once in substance: the Einigungsgebühr (settlement fee) goes to the counsel who brokers the settlement.
How the amounts scale with your salary and claims is explained in our guide to RVG fees in employment law and on our costs page. The duplication is real money — four figures in a typical dismissal case — so it should buy you something real: better strategy, actual responsiveness, English-language capability, or repaired trust.
Who pays: insurance and PKH
Legal-expenses insurance
Insurers cover the necessary costs of pursuing your rights. A first lawyer’s fees are necessary; a second lawyer doing the same procedural work usually is not — unless there is good cause for the change (a breakdown of trust with objective substance, lawyer error, the practice closing or dropping the mandate). The operational rule: obtain the insurer’s written coverage confirmation (Deckungszusage) for the new counsel before you switch, not after. Our guide to legal-expenses insurance in employment cases covers the mechanics; a good successor lawyer will run the insurer correspondence for you.
Prozesskostenhilfe (PKH)
If a lawyer was appointed for you under legal aid, swapping requires the court’s approval (§ 121 ZPO). Courts allow it where the relationship of trust is seriously and demonstrably disturbed — and routinely expect the change to cause no extra cost to the state, which in practice means the new lawyer accepts limits on duplicated fees. If you are on PKH, talk to the prospective new lawyer about exactly this before filing anything.
Good reasons versus cosmetic dissatisfaction
Reasons that justify a switch — and usually persuade an insurer:
- Unreachable for weeks while deadlines approach; unanswered emails around critical dates.
- Missed or nearly missed deadlines, filings with wrong facts, no visible strategy.
- No English in a case where you cannot follow your own dispute — for expats a substantive, not cosmetic, point.
- Pressure to accept a low settlement without any explanation of the alternative scenario and its numbers.
- Conflicts of interest or fee surprises that were never disclosed.
Reasons to pause before switching: the lawyer’s honest risk assessment is more pessimistic than you hoped; the case moves slower than your anxiety; no one guaranteed a number. A sober second opinion beats an emotional switch — sometimes the second opinion is that your current counsel is doing fine.
Raise it with your current lawyer first
Most switch impulses are communication failures, not competence failures. Before terminating, send one structured email: ask for a written case-status summary, the strategy for the next stage, the realistic settlement corridor in euros, and expected response times. A professional answers within days — and either the relationship resets or you now have a documented record that supports the insurer conversation. We say this as a firm that takes over cases mid-stream and also gives second opinions that end with „stay where you are”: the goal is the right outcome in your case, and the file usually shows quickly which it is.
Worked example
Product manager, €8,000 gross per month, dismissal case — value in dispute three months’ salary, €24,000. All fee figures below are rounded net amounts for orientation; statutory tables change and VAT comes on top.
- Lawyer 1 files the Kündigungsschutzklage and attends the Gütetermin, then goes silent for five weeks around a court deadline despite documented reminders. Earned: 1.3 Verfahrensgebühr ≈ €1,000 plus 1.2 Terminsgebühr ≈ €950 — roughly €1,950 net, which he keeps.
- The switch happens in the gap after the Gütetermin. The insurer issues a Deckungszusage for new counsel based on the documented non-responsiveness — before the mandate moves.
- Lawyer 2 earns her own 1.3 Verfahrensgebühr ≈ €1,000, the 1.2 Terminsgebühr for the Kammertermin ≈ €950 and the 1.0 Einigungsgebühr ≈ €790 for the settlement she negotiates: €41,000 severance plus an agreed reference — against the €26,000 that had been on the table before the switch.
The duplicated element — the second Verfahrensgebühr, roughly €1,190 gross — was carried by the insurer because the cause was documented and the confirmation obtained first. The switch itself was worth €15,000 in settlement improvement. Same case, wrong order of operations — switching first, asking the insurer second — and the €1,190 would likely have been the client’s own bill.
Frequently asked questions
Does switching lawyers restart any deadlines?
No. The three-week deadline, exclusion periods, court-set briefing deadlines — everything keeps running. The new lawyer inherits the deadline landscape exactly as it stands, which is why the file review should happen before the old mandate ends.
Will the judge hold a change of counsel against me?
No. Changes of representation are routine at every Arbeitsgericht and are processed with a one-line notice. Judges care about preparedness, not about the name on the power of attorney.
Can my old lawyer keep my file until I pay?
A retention right for unpaid fees exists, but it has limits — especially where withholding would prejudice you inappropriately, for example against running deadlines. Pay the undisputed portion, insist on the handover, and contest the disputed remainder separately.
Do I owe the first lawyer anything if almost nothing happened yet?
It depends on what „almost nothing” was: once a lawyer has substantively taken up the court mandate, the Verfahrensgebühr is typically earned; before that, only advice-stage fees may have arisen. Ask for an itemised invoice — and have the successor check it against what the file actually shows.
Can I just get a second opinion without switching?
Yes, and it is often the best first step: a fixed-scope review of the file, the strategy and the settlement corridor. It either restores confidence in your current counsel or gives you a documented basis for the change — including for the insurer.