Legal and financial advice in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Author: Azur Prnjavorac, attorney at law and mediator | Last updated: 5 September 2026
In brief: Law Office Prnjavorac provides legal and financial advice throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina: oral advice or a written legal opinion, review and drafting of contracts, legal due diligence, advice on security instruments and bank contracts, and on the tax aspects of a transaction. Clients are individuals, companies, foreign investors and the BiH diaspora.
- What you get: a clear assessment of your legal position, the options and a recommendation of the next steps; where needed, a written legal opinion.
- Contracts: review before signing and drafting, with a check of encumbrances and entries in the land registers.
- Due diligence: a legal review of a property or a company before purchase, takeover or investment.
- The financial side: security instruments (mortgage, pledge, bank guarantee, bill of exchange), bank contracts and debt collection.
- Tax aspects: VAT at 17 per cent and profit tax at 10 per cent, with tax and financial law.
- Languages: Bosnian, English and German; representation throughout BiH under a power of attorney.
- Price: under the Attorney Tariff of the Federation of BiH, known in advance when the appointment is made.
Legal and financial advice is the service by which a lawyer analyses your situation before you take a decision: reviews the documents, points out the risks and gives a clear answer to what is legally possible, what is sensible and in what order to proceed. Law Office Prnjavorac has provided legal and financial advice to individuals, companies, foreign investors and the BiH diaspora throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1993. Advice may be given orally, at an appointment in Tuzla, or in the form of a written legal opinion that you can show to a business partner, a bank or a court. The aim is simple: to prevent a dispute, a loss or a bad contract before it arises, because prevention is always faster and cheaper than litigation.
What legal advice covers
Legal advice has three steps: analysis of the facts and the documents, legal qualification of your situation and a concrete recommendation of the next steps. In practice that means the lawyer reviews contracts before they are signed, checks the ownership position of a property in the land registers, assesses the prospects of a dispute before a claim is filed and prepares a legal analysis of the case where an in-depth assessment is needed. Advice covers every area of the office's work: from contract law and real estate transactions, through family and inheritance law, to BiH citizenship and administrative proceedings. At the end of the consultation you always know three things: what your legal position is, what options you have, and how long each of them takes and what it costs.
Legal advice for individuals
Individuals most often need advice at turning points in life: the purchase or sale of a property, inheritance, the division of property, questions of citizenship and civil status. The lawyer checks the contract for the sale of a property before it is notarised, warns of encumbrances and entries in the land registers, advises on the disposition of property during one's lifetime through a will or a contract of lifetime support, and guides clients through questions of dual citizenship and entries in the civil registers. Timely advice in these situations prevents disputes that would otherwise run for years: one review of a contract before signing is often worth more than a whole lawsuit after it.
Legal advice for companies and entrepreneurs
To companies and entrepreneurs the office provides continuous legal support in their business: formation of companies and the choice of the most suitable legal form, status changes and changes in the court register, drafting and review of commercial contracts, advice in negotiations with business partners and an assessment of the risks before entering into new arrangements. When a dispute arises, a client who has done business with legal advice has proper contracts and evidence, and their position in a commercial dispute is incomparably stronger. For companies that regularly deal with a large number of partners, advice also includes the standardisation of contracts: templates set up well once protect every subsequent transaction.
Financial and legal advice
Financial and legal advice covers the legal side of money: loan and credit agreements, security instruments and relations with banks and other financial institutions. The lawyer advises which security instrument best protects your interest in the particular transaction, because a mortgage, a pledge, a bank guarantee and a bill of exchange do not have the same force or the same cost, and prepares the necessary documentation in accordance with the regulations. The office has long experience in banking law and finance, including debt collection for domestic and international banks and funds. An integral part of financial advice is the tax side of the transaction: with tax and financial law and the correct application of the VAT regulations, the client knows the tax consequences of a transaction in advance, rather than discovering them in a tax audit.
Advice for foreign investors and the BiH diaspora
Foreign investors and the BiH diaspora make up a significant part of the office's clients. Advice is particularly important to them because they are investing in a legal system they do not know from everyday life: the lawyer checks the right of foreigners to acquire real estate and the conditions of reciprocity, conducts the formation of a company in BiH from the choice of form to registration, advises on the transfer of money abroad and the foreign exchange regulations, and on the tax questions of cross-border business, including the treaties for the avoidance of double taxation. All communication is possible in Bosnian, English and German, and under a power of attorney the office represents clients before courts and authorities throughout BiH without the client having to come in person.
Legal due diligence and written legal opinions
Legal due diligence is the most thorough form of advice: a systematic review of the legal position of a property, a company or an investment before a decision is taken. The review covers ownership and encumbrances in the land registers, the status documents and contracts of the company, pending disputes, receivables and liabilities, and regulatory questions. The result is a written report with the risks clearly listed and recommendations on how to allocate them by contract or remove them before the transaction is concluded. Alongside due diligence, the office prepares written legal opinions on individual legal questions: a document you can present to a business partner, a bank, a notary or a court as an expert assessment of your legal position.
How advice works in our office
The procedure is simple and known in advance:
- Making an appointment: by telephone on +387 35 258 110 or by e-mail to advokat@advokat-prnjavorac.com. An appointment is required.
- Sending the documents: before the appointment you send the contracts, decisions and correspondence relating to your question, so that the lawyer can study the matter in advance.
- The consultation: at the appointment you receive a clear assessment of your legal position, the options you have and a recommendation of the next steps; for clients abroad the consultation takes place by telephone and e-mail.
- Written legal opinion: where needed, you receive the agreed advice in writing as well, with reasons and instructions.
- Further representation: where the consultation shows that a contract has to be drafted, a proceeding conducted or representation provided, the office takes over the matter by agreement with you.
The fee for advice is determined under the current Attorney Tariff of the Federation of BiH and you learn it in advance, when the appointment is made. Everything you entrust to a lawyer is protected by attorney-client privilege, so you can speak about your matter openly and without reserve. The combination of the legal and the financial angle in the same office means that for one transaction you do not have to coordinate several advisers: the contract, the security and the tax consequences are considered together, as a whole.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often about legal and financial advice in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
What does legal and financial advice at Law Office Prnjavorac cover?
Legal and financial advice covers the analysis of your legal situation, oral advice or a written legal opinion, the review and drafting of contracts, legal due diligence before the purchase of a property or the takeover of a company, and advice on security instruments, bank and financial contracts and the tax aspects of the planned transaction. We advise individuals, companies, foreign investors and the BiH diaspora throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina.
How do I make an appointment for legal advice and what does it look like?
An appointment is made in advance, by telephone on +387 35 258 110 or by e-mail to advokat@advokat-prnjavorac.com. Before the appointment it is useful to send the documents relating to your question, so that the lawyer can study the matter beforehand. The consultation itself takes place at the office in Tuzla or, for clients abroad, by telephone and e-mail, and where needed the client also receives a written legal opinion with a clear recommendation of the next steps.
How much does legal advice from a lawyer in Bosnia and Herzegovina cost?
The price of legal advice is determined under the current Attorney Tariff of the Federation of BiH and depends on the complexity of the legal question and the time needed to analyse the documents. You learn the exact amount in advance, when the appointment is made, so you know what the service costs before you come. For more complex engagements, such as legal due diligence, the fee is agreed according to the volume of the documents.
What is legal due diligence and when is it needed?
Legal due diligence is a systematic review of the legal position of a property, a company or an investment before a decision is taken. It covers the check of ownership and encumbrances in the land registers, the status documents of the company, contracts, pending disputes and regulatory obligations. It is needed before the purchase of a property, the takeover or recapitalisation of a company and entry into larger business arrangements, because it reveals the risks while they can still be avoided or allocated by contract.
Do you advise foreigners and the BiH diaspora, and in which languages?
Yes, a significant part of the office’s clients are foreign investors and members of the BiH diaspora from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and other countries. Advice is available in Bosnian, English and German. For clients who are unable to come to Bosnia and Herzegovina, communication takes place by telephone and e-mail, and representation before courts and authorities throughout BiH is provided under a power of attorney, without the client having to come in person.
How does advice from a lawyer differ from the services of an accountant or a tax adviser?
A lawyer gives your situation its legal qualification, warns of the risks, drafts and reviews contracts and where necessary represents you before courts and administrative authorities, which an accountant and a tax adviser cannot do. In addition, everything you entrust to a lawyer is protected by attorney-client privilege. In financial and tax matters a lawyer and an accountant complement each other: the accountant keeps the records and the calculations, and the lawyer protects your rights in proceedings and shapes the transaction so that it is legally secure.
Clients have trusted us since 1993.
The law office Prnjavorac has been active since 1993. Today, in its fourth decade of work, it has 1,056 Google reviews with a rating of 5.0 / 5 across two independent Google business profiles.
All client reviews are publicly available on both Google business profiles, without filtering, mediation or moderation by the law office.
Other areas of the firm's work
We provide legal assistance and representation across a wide range of areas in Bosnia and Herzegovina:
