|
Hiring a Lawyer
So you have come to the conclusion that you need a lawyer.
If you have never hired a lawyer for anything before (or even
if you have) finding out the basics of the lawyer/client relationship
might reduce some of the anxiety that can come along with this
unfamiliar territory.
It is as easy as taking these three steps:
- Contacting Us
- Setting up a meeting
- Retaining us as your lawyers
You need to connect with the lawyer who has the right mix of skills
for your task. This can be done by phone or e-mail.
• TELEPHONE
By phone, simply call 613-722-1500 with a very brief description
of your issue.
Examples of this description might be:
- “I am thinking of a separation from my spouse, and need
to talk to a family law lawyer”
- “I need to incorporate my business and would like to
talk to someone about that”
- “I just got a letter from my boss, and they seem to be
laying me off. I need some advice”
- “I have just been served with a Statement of Claim and
I need some help from a litigation lawyer”
- “I just put an offer in on a house. Do you have a real
estate lawyer I can speak to?”
Our receptionist will connect you quickly to someone—in
some cases, directly with a lawyer, in others, with a legal assistant—who
can take down some more specific details and get you in touch
with to the most appropriate lawyer as soon as possible.
This second person will have time to get more detail from you
in order to establish what kind of lawyer you might need.
• E-MAIL
If you want to contact us by e-mail, there are two ways you can
direct your inquiry.
You may navigate to the type of law — or practice area —
you believe your issue falls under (click
here for a list of types of law we handle at Mann & Partners,
LLP). Choose one of the lawyers listed that service that area,
as listed at the bottom of the page. Clicking on the lawyer’s
name will bring you to their biography page, and a link to e-mail
them directly.
If you are not sure about who would be best to assist you with
your issue or transaction, or if you aren’t sure what practice
area your issue falls into, you can click
here and send an e-mail to our general e-mail inbox. This
will be reviewed by one of our senior staff, who will ensure it
gets directed on appropriately for response.
In your e-mail, give a brief outline of the task, transaction
or problem you need help with. This is not the time to go into
great detail about the people involved or the entire history of
the matter. At this stage we are still just trying to direct you
to the right professional — so we need just a paragraph or
two saying what your issue is about and what kind of help you
are seeking.
Once you have made contact with the appropriate lawyer at our
firm, both you and the lawyer will need to answer a very important
question.
The lawyer needs to establish if this matter is something that
we can help you with.
And you will need to determine if this lawyer and this law firm
are the ones you want to hire to assist you in achieving your
objectives.
This step is all about setting up a meeting with that lawyer
so you can exchange the information both of you will need to answer
those questions. The lawyer will want some more detail to analyze
your objectives and determine if we are in a position to help.
You will want some more information about our services and what
the process ahead looks like, and perhaps exactly how we propose
to move you towards your goals.
That meeting can be conducted in person, or by phone. It can be
brief, or long. It can be free, or depending on the complexity
of the matter, we may require payment in order to do the detailed
analysis necessary to determine if your matter is worthy of pursuit.
• WHEN DOES IT START COSTING YOU MONEY?
It is our commitment to you that you will know when we are “turning
on the meter”.
Let’s take a moment to review how law firms charge their
clients.
Some of the things we do (transactions such as real estate purchases
or sales, preparation of a will, and some incorporations) are
done at a fixed price. Unless something unexpected takes it off-track
(closing problems, etc.) the fee will be as quoted. If there are
problems, we will tell you when we have to go off-quote.
For everything else, where you are retaining us to achieve a goal
or objective (such as defending a law suit, negotiating a dispute
or a complicated business deal with another party, or obtaining
relief for a loss through litigation) your account will be directly
related to several concrete factors, including how much time the lawyer
expends on your behalf moving you towards that goal.
Legal fees are based primarily on the time spent on the file,
and the regular hourly rate of the person on the file. Depending
on the degree of experience and specialization required on the
matter, different lawyers, students and paralegal assistants within
the firm can be involved in the handling of the file. The time
spent (expressed in hours, broken down to units of 0.1 of an hour
— or six minutes) is then multiplied by the hourly rate of
the lawyer or legal professional providing the services.
In addition to time spent, however, the following matters may
be taken into account in fixing the final fee:
- the difficulty and importance of the matter;
- whether special skills or services have been required or provided;
- the amount involved or the value of the subject matter;
- the results obtained;
- the certainty of the compensation; and
- the urgency of the matter.
It doesn’t cost anything to make your initial call to us,
and it isn’t going to cost anything for those first brief
phone chats with the receptionist, or the legal assistant, or
even the lawyer — if we are trying to clarify what your issue
is, and whether or not we have the lawyers who can help you with
it.
Once the lawyer has spent the initial time discussing your matter
with you, and they have determined that we can help you —
and you have determined that you want to hire Mann & Partners,
LLP — the conversation will then shift into discussion of
the terms upon which you will retain us.
“Retainer” is a word used by lawyers in two ways.
It refers to the Retainer Agreement. This is a contract between
you and this firm, whereby we agree to the terms which will govern
the relationship.
Those terms relate to what you want us to do or what you want
to achieve, what we charge for, how much we charge, payment and
billing terms, and how and when the relationship might end.
It also refers to the Retainer Deposit, which is a sum of money
that we require be deposited with us to secure payment of future
accounts. The money is deposited into our Trust Account, and stays
there until an account is rendered, when, at the lawyer’s
discretion, it can be applied to the account owing, or kept as
continuing security.
Generally, we need to “be retained”, which means complete
and sign a written Retainer Agreement as well as receive and process
a Retainer Deposit before we can do any work for you (detailed
information gathering, analysis, strategy, recommendations, or
advice).
In some circumstances, such as emergencies, we will render billable
services to you before we are retained. This is the exception.
There are other lists of tips about how to work efficiently with
your lawyer — depending on what type of legal task or issue
you have brought to us — elsewhere in this section, and on
this site.
We hope that these notes have helped you understand the basics
of contacting and hiring one of lawyers. If you have questions
or wish to know more, please contact us at any time.
HOME | ARTICLES | NEWS | BLAWG
|