We do most work at our hourly rates. This means that your bill is based on the amount of time spent working on your matter. We bill in one-tenth hour increments, because we often do work for multiple clients in any given hour. We send detailed statements describing the work and time spent.
Time spent working on your matter: this may include reviewing, preparing, and revising legal documents; in person or telephone conferences; and preparing and responding to correspondence.
We do not bill you for every interaction with us. We don’t charge you for incidental emails, or if we have a short minute or two conversation on the phone.
We try hard not to “nickel and dime” you, so you won’t see charges for things like small or routine copy jobs, stamps, or the “overhead” or “office expense” charges.
Time spent “thinking about your file” is only billable time in the movies. You’re only “on the clock” when we are.
No. We charge for time spent working on your matter. We don’t count quick emails and phone calls. However, multiple email or telephone exchanges and substantive time spent on such communications is billable. We will discuss this issue with you, if we feel that time spent on excessive communication becomes a problem.
We generally send invoices monthly, but sometimes that doesn’t make sense. Sometimes we will send them more or less frequently, such as upon the completion of a project or a stage in your matter.
We provide you with your bill electronically or by mail. You can pay our accounts by cash, money order, cheque, debit, or credit card.
Yes. We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
Please let us know right away. We will address any billing disagreements in keeping with our core values of fairness and candor. We will do our best to resolve billing concerns with a conversation and clarification.
It is important that you raise any questions about your bills as soon as possible, and no later than 30 days of billing, so that we may address them promptly.
It’s a letter that we send for you to sign at the beginning of our representation. It describes in detail what services we will be providing and what our fee rate is for legal services. It will also set out the expectations of our lawyer-client relationship. This may also be referred to as “Fee Agreement” or “Retainer Agreement.”
Abraham Lincoln has been quoted saying, “The purpose of an engagement letter is so the client knows he has a lawyer, and the lawyer knows he has a client.”
Yes, in certain matters we will agree to a flat fee or some other arrangement where the fees are not based on hourly rates. This isn’t available for all types of matters, and it requires a discussion of both the fee arrangement and the scope of the work. If we agree to a flat fee, we usually require upfront payment.
