Fee Schedule

TO OUR CLIENTS:

As part of our effort to provide you with the best service we can, and so you may better understand the cost of providing this service, this memo explains the basis for our fees.  Legal services can be expensive.  While we pride ourselves on cost-effectiveness, it is important that you understand how you will be charged.

Unless otherwise agreed, we work on an hourly fee basis. The new hourly fees for our lawyers and staff, effective January 1, 2009, are as follows:

We reserve the right to change these rates without notice.  

Disbursements

In addition, we bill for disbursements incurred.  Examples of disbursements include:

- Long distance telephone calls
- Registry filing fees
- Agents’ fees (for searches, filings, etc.)
- Photocopying ($.30 per page)
- Faxes ($2.00 per fax sent)
- Experts’ fees
- Out of town travel expenses
- Courthouse legal research costs
- Transcripts
- Couriers

We do not charge for incoming faxes, regular postage or for legal software databases, except, occasionally, Quicklaw. 

[Quicklaw is a database used to research and download case law and is normally not charged back to our clients.  In certain instances, due to excessive usage, research and downloading of cases a small percentage of the cost of Quicklaw will be charged back to the client.] 

Taxes

We are currently required to charge you for GST and PST on our fees and GST on most disbursements.

Timing

We will provide you with a bill each month.  This enables you to know the costs which you are incurring on a timely basis. 

Payment

Accounts are due and payable upon receipt. 

We are not a large operation and there are many disbursements which we may be required to payout on behalf of our clients.  In return we expect and require prompt payment of our accounts.  If a monthly bill is not paid we will not continue to provide work, and we will require a retainer before we perform additional work.

In payment of our accounts we accept cash and cheque.  We also now accept VISA and Mastercard, but please be advised that there is an administration charge for credit card transactions.

Premiums

On occasions where we achieve particularly significant results based on the work performed, we reserve the right to charge a premium.

Contingency fees

On occasion we will enter into contingency fee arrangements.  These must be agreed upon in advance and must be reduced to writing to conform to the requirements of our Law Society.

Miscellaneous

The Rules of our Law Society permit you to have any bill reviewed by a Master of the Supreme Court.

In cases involving employment law, where we act for employees, our fees are usually tax-deductible.  If you have any questions about this you should consult your accountant.

In many cases where we are successful before the Courts, you may be awarded costs against the other party in accord with a tariff of costs which are included in our Supreme Court Rules. You can find this tariff at http://www.ag.gov.bc.ca/courts/civil/sup_crt_rules/rules/index.htm.

We hope this is of assistance to you.  Naturally there may be questions which arise, and we would be pleased to answer them.