January 25, 2016

CESAR MONTANO
45B Jupiter Street, Bel Air,
Makati City 1214
Phone No. 0917 456 1237
cesarmontano@gmail.com
RE

GENERAL ENGAGEMENT AGREEMENT

SIR:
BRIEF STATEMENT OF FACTS:
In 2001, Mr. Cesar Montano met Ms. Maria Ozawa in
New Orleans. Mr. Montano is a lawyer specializing in
Corporation Law, while Ms. Ozawa is a Japanese Lawyer
practicing in New York.
In 2002, they got married in the Philippines. They had
a loving relationship, until 2006 when marital problems
started. They tried to make the relationship work, but the
circumstances overcame their efforts. Eventually, Ms. Maria
Ozawa filed for divorce in Japan and was granted in 2008.
Moving on with their different lives, Ms. Ozawa
remarried, while Mr. Montano met Sunshine Cruz in 2011,
who became his girlfriend. Mr. Montano now plans to
remarry.

LEGAL OPINION
The legal remedy available to the client is to have the
divorce decree obtained by his alien ex-spouse judicially
recognized here in the Philippines pursuant to Article 26, par.
2 of the Family Code. The recognition of the foreign divorce
decree may be made in a Rule 108 proceeding itself, as the
object of special proceeding is precisely to establish the
status or right of a party or a particular fact (Fujiki vs.
Marinay; June 26 2013).
SCOPE OF SERVICES
This engagement will cover all pertinent legal services
in connection with the case at hand subject to the terms and
conditions herein set forth.
EFFECTIVITY
This agreement shall be effective upon confirmation by
the client by affixing his signature in the space provided
herein for the purpose.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
We confirm our availability to act as your RETAINED
LITIGATION ATTORNEYS regarding the abovementioned case
under the following TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
1. ACCEPTANCE FEE
For this case, our Acceptance Fee shall be One Hundred
Thousand Pesos (PhP 100,000.00).
You shall only be charged with the stated Acceptance Fee
when the case is already complete.
2. PLEADING FEES
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We shall be entitled to pleading fees for each pleading,

position paper, memorandum, motion, affidavit, judicial
affidavit, demand letter, reply to demand letter, and the like
that must be issued, sent, filed or submitted in relation to
your case. Our Pleading Fees shall range from Five Thousand
Pesos (PhP 5,000.00) to a maximum of Twenty Thousand
Pesos (PhP 20,000.00), depending on the time spent,
difficulty, or urgency attending the preparation thereof.
However, we shall not charge you for minor or routine
pleadings and documents, such as motions for postponement,
motions for extension and the like, but we will still bill you for
out-of-pocket expenses (OPEs) and Appearance Fees, if
incurred or warranted.
3. APPEARANCE FEES
Each of our lawyers shall be entitled to Appearance Fees in
the amount of Five Thousand Pesos (PhP 5,000.00) for
every hearing or conference attended in courts, quasijudicial
bodies and/or administrative agencies within Metro Manila. If
the appearance is outside Metro Manila, the Appearance Fee
shall be in the amount of Eight Thousand Pesos (PhP
8,000.00).
The same Appearance Fees shall also be charged upon you by
each of our lawyers when any of them appear and assist you:
(a) in the personal delivery, filing or submission of pleadings
(as defined and enumerated above) (b) when making a
personal visit and followup of your case (c) when making a
personal interview of your witnesses for the purpose of
preparing evidence, pleadings, and affidavits (especially
judicial affidavits) and (d) in personal attendance in
mediation or conciliation conferences, including outofcourt
meetings and negotiations with the other parties and/or their
counsels in relation to your case.

If our paralegal officers (in lieu of our lawyers) appear and

assist you in any of the above situations, their Appearance
Fee shall be Two Thousand Pesos (PhP 2,000.00) per
paralegal officer. If the appearance is outside Metro Manila,
the Appearance Fee shall be in the amount of Three
Thousand Pesos (PhP 3,500.00). Note that our paralegal
officers are welltrained legal staff who are either law
graduates or graduating law students. They shall be in
constant communication and coordination with our lawyers
whenever they assist or appear in your behalf.
Note also that we shall charge you with tariff (in lieu of travel
or transportation expense) when our lawyers and paralegal
officers appear and assist you in any of the above situations.
Please see our Tariff rates below.
4. RESPONSIBILITY PREMIUM and SUCCESS FEES
For extraordinary effort and/or extraordinary result, we
reserve the right to charge you with a reasonable
Responsibility Premium and/or Success Fee.
Taking into account the difficulty of the work to be performed,
the great number of government agencies that we may have
to deal with, the urgency with which the above matters must
be attended to, the importance and complexity of the subject
matter, the risks or benefits to you, and other relevant
factors, we may assess you either a reasonable Responsibility
Premium, or Success Fee, or both, in addition to the
professional fees already mentioned above.
At the appropriate time, we shall mutually agree on the rate
or amount of the Responsibility Premium and/or Success
Fees. For Success Fees, the default rate is ten percent
(10%) of whatever you have saved, or ten percent (10%)
of whatever you have gained or recovered, through our
efforts.

5. LAWYERS ASSIGNED
The handling lawyers for your case are
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Atty.
Atty.
Atty.
Atty.
Atty.

Jake M. Danduan
Lyle Harvey Espinas
Marie Elaine Legis Pangilinan
Liezel Pentinio and
Dylan Alexandra Sumaway

6. SEPARATE ENGAGEMENTS
Any appeal, elevation or petition to, or judicial review by a
higher body, or other parallel actions or proceedings in court
or in any other quasijudicial or administrative body that is
related or has branched out from the original case that you
referred to us, or filed separately in connection with said
case, shall be treated as a separate engagement (with new
Acceptance Fees and Deposits) but with preferential or
discounted rates.
Any dispute, issue, case, concern or matter that is outside or
beyond the scope of the abovementioned case shall likewise
be treated as a separate engagement to be governed by a
separate agreement. Alternatively, such may be treated as an
Additional Work (or AddOns) under our Retainer Agreement.
7. CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The rules of legal ethics restrict us from accepting an
engagement involving the prosecution or defense of your
interests adverse to those of our other clients whom we
previously
represented
concerning
the
same
case,
controversy, or matter. On occasion, the conflict of interest
may not be readily discernible at the time we accepted a
specific engagement from a client accordingly, we are
compelled to reserve the right to withdraw from the

engagement should such conflict eventually develop or

become apparent.
However, we may agree, on a casetocase basis, to act as
transaction counsel to reduce into the appropriate legal
document the basic terms reached by both parties without
our partisan involvement.
8. REPORTS
We shall submit to you periodic written reports on the
progress of, or development in, the casework we performed.
We shall also submit to you such reports whenever you
request us to do so.
9. OUTOFPOCKET EXPENSES (OPEs)
All OPEs that we have incurred, or shall incur, for your benefit
shall be for your sole account. OPEs refer but not limited to
telecommunication expenses postage and courier expenses
printing, scanning, and photocopying expenses notary public
fees reasonable representation expenses secretarial,
clerical, stenographic, messengerial, and other miscellaneous
expenses travel and transportation expenses (based on the
fixed tariff rates below), tollway fees and parking fees
incurred in all appearances (as defined above) or personal
visits to your office or various courts and government
agencies or in meetings and conferences outside our office
as well as government fees and service fees paid to third
parties, and the like.
Metro Manila Fixed Tariff Rates (exclusive of appearance fees,
tollway fees and parking fees):
a. PhP 500.00 within Makati City
b. PhP 700.00
within
Pasig City, Pasay
Mandaluyong City and San Juan City
c. PhP 800.00 within Manila City, and Taguig City

City,

d. PhP 1,000.00 within Quezon City, Kalookan City, and

Paraaque City and
e. PhP 1,200.00 within Marikina City, Valenzuela City,
Malabon City, Muntinlupa City, Navotas, Las Pias
City, and Pateros.
Provinces near Metro Manila Tariff Rates (exclusive of meals,
appearance fees, tollway fees and parking fees):
a. PhP 2,000.00 within Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna, and
Cavite
b. PhP 3,000.00 within Quezon, Batangas, Aurora,
Pampanga, Bataan, Nueva Ecija, Zambales and
Tarlac.
For other outoftown trips (exclusive of appearance fees): All
travel, air, sea and land transportation expenses, tollway fees,
terminal
fees,
parking
fees,
meals,
lodging
and
representation expenses, and other necessary or incidental
expenses that we may or have incurred for your benefit shall
be for your sole account.
NOTE: We do not issue Official Receipts for OPEs because we
do not consider OPEs as our revenue or income. OPEs are
your sole expenses. We shall only issue to you
Acknowledgment
Receipts
for
OPE
deposits
and
reimbursements, and we shall forward to you the Official
Receipts and other proof of expenses issued to us upon your
request.
10.OPE DEPOSIT
For this reason, you are required to deposit with us the
amount of Fifteen Thousand Pesos (PhP 15,000.00) upon
the commencement of this Agreement. This deposit is not a
fee. It shall answer exclusively for the outofpocket expenses
(OPEs) or operational expenses associated with the servicing
of your account. Any unused portion of this deposit shall be
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returned to you. It may also be applied to your other

outstanding accounts, if any.
NOTE: However, the OPE Deposit may be waived, provided
that the client replenishes the PhP 15,000.00 OPE Deposit in
the existing Retainer Agreement and deposits the amount
required for the filing fees and other court fees that we
anticipate in the case.
11.STATEMENTS OF ACCOUNT (SOA) and INVOICES
We shall prepare and send to you consolidated SOAs every
billing period, which is usually every month, or as the need
arises.
We shall also send you written Invoices for each service we
deliver and/or for each OPE we incur via email as soon as
possible.
12.PAYMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Upon receipt of our Invoice, you shall deposit your payments
for our professional fees and/or reimbursements for our outofpocket expenses (or Deposit replenishments) to the bank
account of DANDUAN ESPINAS PANGILINAN PENTINIO
SUMAWAY, LTD. (Metro Bank Account No. 0658068814385) without need for any followup, request,
demand, Statement of Account, or billing statement. You shall
scan and email the deposit slip to dylan.obrien@deppslaw.org
for our bookkeeping purpose.
Upon your written request, we may agree to accept payments
in kind (or reimbursements in kind) under fair and reasonable
terms and conditions.
NOTE: Nonpayment or unreasonable delay in payment or
reimbursement shall be a ground for us to suspend our

services to you under this Engagement Agreement or other

agreements between us.
13.INTEREST CHARGES
Any unpaid amount due in our Statement of Account shall be
charged one percent (1%) interest per month starting on
the 30th day after your receipt of the corresponding
Statement of Account.
14.VALUE ADDED TAX (VAT)
The professional fees quoted above do not yet include the
12% VAT.
Hence, we shall add VAT to our professional fees.
NOTE: Reimbursements for OPEs are NOT subject to VAT.
15.EXPANDED WITHHOLDING TAX (EWT)
You may deduct the corresponding creditable EWT from our
professional fees provided that you remit it to the BIR and
furnish us with the corresponding BIR Form.
NOTE: Reimbursements for OPEs are NOT subject to EWT.
16.AMENDMENTS and WAIVERS
Both of us may propose to each other amendments or
revisions to this Engagement Agreement from time to time
with respect to the rates and other terms and conditions.
However, such revisions or amendments shall be effective and
binding only when theres a signed written agreement
between us. Moreover, all waivers must be in writing and
signed to be binding on us.

17.PRETERMINATION
Either one of us may preterminate this Engagement
Agreement upon thirty (30) days prior written notice, without
prejudice to the payment of any accrued and outstanding
professional fees and reimbursement of any OPE that we
have incurred on your behalf.
Note: Your failure to promptly pay our SOAs is a ground for
us to preterminate this Engagement Agreement, or for us to
suspend our services to you under this or other agreements
between us.
18.DURATION
Unless preterminated, this Engagement Agreement shall
continue to be effective and binding between us, and it shall
expire only when the subject matter case or cases are
already closed and terminated, completely settled, or fully
satisfied, as the case may be, without prejudice to the
payment of any accrued and outstanding professional fees
and reimbursement of any OPE that we have incurred on your
behalf.
19.INTEGRITY CLAUSE
It is understood that we shall only recommend and
implement strategies and solutions that are not only legal and
practical, but ethical and moral as well.
20.TRANSITORY PROVISION
The Handling Lawyers hereby reserve the right to continue
servicing your account and handling your case(s) under the
name of another firm, partnership or company, wherein they
are owners, partners, members, stockholders, directors,
trustees or officers.

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Should you find the foregoing terms and conditions

acceptable, please indicate your conformity by fillingin and
signing on the space provided below, and by returning to us a
signed copy of this Engagement Agreement for our files.
Thank you very much.
Very truly yours,
JAKE M. DANDUAN
CONFORME:
Mr. CESAR MONTANO

NOTE: Please sign or initial all the pages of this Engagement

Agreement. Thank you!

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