Fees
At MacAdams Law Firm we deliberately talk about legal expense bluntly and early on.
Initial Consultation:
What are the fees for an initial consultation?
We charge for initial consultations. We ask clients to pay $840 by cash, bank draft or Visa/Master Card immediately before meeting with a lawyer from MacAdams Law Firm.
The fee for our initial consultation is a flat rate fee meaning that you pay for the consultation regardless of how long the consultation takes. Included in the $840 payment are the provincial and federal taxes we are required to collect. We find most consultations last an hour to two hours.
Legal Expenses:
What are the legal expenses if a client retains MacAdams Law Firm on an ongoing basis?
Legal expenses consist of the following: fees, disbursements (e.g. fees to the courts, charges of process servers, court reporters), other charges (e.g. photocopies, postage, etc.) and taxes (GST and PST).
MacAdams Law Firm generally determines fees after considering the factors set out in the Legal Profession Act and adopted by the courts. Those factors include the complexity, difficulty or the novelty of the issues involved, the skill, specialized knowledge and responsibility required of our lawyers, the character and standing in the profession of our lawyers, and the importance of the matter to you.
In providing legal services to you, MacAdams Law Firm is in the business of providing legal services for a fair and reasonable fee and is not in the business of selling time. Put another way, the commodity which MacAdams Law Firm is selling is our skill and experience and not our time. On your matter MacAdams Law Firm will not determine your fee by multiplying the time allocated to your matter by an hourly rate per unit of time. In the view of MacAdams Law Firm, hourly billing crucially confuses costs to the law firm of providing services with the value of those services to the client. For that reason MacAdams Law Firm will not be setting or charging fees based on a dollar amount per unit of time.
Sometimes MacAdams Law Firm will do work for a fixed fee as agreed between the client and MacAdams Law Firm.
Retainers:
Retainers are payments in advance against anticipated legal expenses. MacAdams Law Firm generally asks clients to pay an initial advance of $5,000 which we put in our trust account and apply against legal expenses. When the initial retainer is close to being used up, we ask for a further retainer in whatever amount then seems appropriate. Generally this is $5,000, although sometimes the amount we ask for can be larger. Many clients find it convenient to set up lines of credit with their bankers to enable them to respond to these requests for advances.
Retainer Letter:
We do our best to prepare in each case a retainer letter which sets out what MacAdams Law Firm will do and the basis on which MacAdams Law Firm will determine fees. Our objective is to review this letter carefully with each client. When the client has considered the letter fully and is in agreement, we ask the client to sign the letter. Then we get on with the job.
Billing Procedures:
Each month we review all our open files. If the file is at a stage appropriate for billing, we prepare and send a bill. As a client of MacAdams Law Firm you can be assured that your file will be reviewed frequently, that your file will be billed as soon as is appropriate, and that you are unlikely to be caught by surprise by an unexpected bill.
Resolving Disputes:
MacAdams Law Firm encourages our clients to raise concerns about our bills early and vigorously. We want to resolve concerns quickly. There are of course procedures available in the courts for resolving disputes between clients and lawyers, but our preference is to deal with matters directly and early.