Our Terms With You · Effective since 1987 · Reviewed annually
Our terms with you
Firms write terms of engagement to protect themselves. These run the other way: the commitments this firm makes to every client, drafted as the agreement they are, with a plain-English note in every margin.
1. Undertakings of the Firm
The four promises on our front page, restated here where they legally belong.
We answer the phone the day you call.
A lawyer calls you back, not a machine. Same day, before we go home.
You will know the cost before we begin.
A number, in writing, before any clock starts. Our fee schedule is public.
You will never leave a meeting confused.
Ask us to say it plainer. We will, as many times as it takes. That is the job.
Your file is handled by the lawyer you hired.
The person you meet is the person who does the work.
2. Communication
Correspondence is answered within one business day of receipt.
Email us Tuesday, hear back by Wednesday. If the answer needs longer, you get told that instead of silence.
Every substantive development in your matter is reported to you when it occurs.
You never learn something about your own file late. Good news, bad news, same speed.
All advice of consequence is confirmed to you in writing.
If it matters, it goes on paper. You should never have to remember what a lawyer said.
3. Plain language
Advice is delivered in language the client can act on without further interpretation.
If you have to hire someone to explain your lawyer, the lawyer failed.
Defined terms, where unavoidable, are explained at first use.
The first time a word like probate or indemnity appears, so does its meaning.
A client may request restatement of any advice, at no charge, until it is understood.
Asking twice is free. Asking five times is free. That is the point of us.
4. Fees and billing
The fee schedule is published and applies as written.
The prices on the fees page are the prices. No meeting required to learn them.
Fees for defined services are fixed in writing before work commences.
Flat means flat. The number you sign is the number you pay.
Hourly matters proceed only upon a written estimate of expected hours.
You know the likely total before you say go, not after.
Statements of account are rendered monthly and itemized to the task.
Each line says what was done, who did it, and how long it took.
Disbursements are disclosed in advance and passed through at cost.
Land title fees, filing fees, couriers: listed before you commit, never marked up.
Any estimate requiring revision is explained to the client before further work is undertaken.
Any estimate that needs to change gets explained before more work happens. In writing, like everything else here.
5. Your file
Each matter is conducted by the lawyer retained, who remains responsible for it throughout.
No handing your file down the hall. The lawyer you chose does the work.
Client confidences are protected without limitation of time.
What you tell us stays here. Forever, not just while you are a client.
The contents of the file belong to the client and are released promptly upon request.
It is your file. If you want it, or want it moved to another firm, it goes, quickly and without sulking.
6. Ending the engagement
A client may end the engagement at any time, for any reason, on written notice.
You can fire us. One email does it. You pay only for work already done.
Upon conclusion, the firm provides a written summary of work performed and outcomes reached.
Every file ends with one page in plain English saying what happened.
Concerns regarding service are heard by a partner within two business days of being raised.
If something is wrong, you talk to an owner of the firm, not a voicemail.
7. Execution
These terms bind the firm at 214 Dominion Avenue, Bellwood, BC, and have since 1987. The fee schedule referred to throughout is published at the fees page.
Terms accepted?
Then the rest is conversation. Book a consultation, or read the fee schedule first; both were written for you, not for us.