In an effort to bring some whimsy to a generally dry field we have elected to put the Barristers, Solicitors, Patent & Trademark Agents upside down.

Thank you to everyone who noticed and made comments.

Feedback is always welcome.

A retainer. Most lawyers charge a "retainer". A retainer is an amount of money paid before work starts. The money is not paid to the lawyer, but into a Trust Account. The funds will be held "In Trust" for you until the legal work is completed and you are provided with an invoice. It is practice to ask you for a retainer in a specified amount prior to the time any work is comenced on your legal matter. When the retainer is used up, a further retainer in the like amount will be required on the same terms and conditions. If we do not receive a further retainer from you, we will stop work on your legal matter, and advise you that we have done so. Why a retainer. As you likely know already, legal work is sometimes expensive. But we have found that it is often worse to start work and not finish it, then it would be to leave matters as they were. For example, if legal documents have already been served, and the client runs out of funds, then the other side might be upset or frustrated and behave badly when you no longer have counsel. Or the client may be without counsel during complicated negotiations or Court applications when the opposing side already has a lawyer. This puts the client at risk. So we have found that a retainer is good for the client. A retainer is good for the lawyer too. It is important to our staff and to the people who provide us with their services that we pay them on time and in full. It is important that we are paid for the hours of work and high level of responsibility we have towards our clients.

We charge by the hour for the time we spend on your legal work. Chargeable work includes meetings with you, telephone calls, research, sending and receiving documentation, attending at Court, negotiations or meetings, or any other necessary services performed on your behalf.

In our patent practice our fees may be calculated based on the time we spend preparing your patent application, or there may be a flat-fee which is quoted to you ahead of time. Click for a detailed list of the costs comonly associated with a patent application.

Disbursements

We additionally charge for disbursements. Disbursements are bills that we pay to others on your behalf. Examples of disbursements include long distance charges, courier costs, patent office fees, Court filing fees, registration and Land Title fees, searches, research costs, transcripts of Examinations, process servers and reports from third parties. We will obtain your approval before incurring very expensive expenses like expert reports.

Other Charges

We also charge you for certain other non-legal services. These include photocopying, faxes, travel mileage expenses, NSF cheques and investment administration charges.