These Terms and Conditions shall apply to all retainers of Maks Law Firm

Re: Retainer to Provide Legal Services

1. Description of Services:

This is a general retainer for all legal services. Some of the clauses may not apply to your matter. The summary of your specific matter is provided by you and your lawyer in the online form.

You have asked us, and we have agreed to act for you in the matter described in the summary section of the form. The purpose of this agreement, which is a part of the online form, is to summarize issues and confirm the terms of your engagement of our firm. Moreover, to legally represent you, we need this retainer agreement executed. By filing the form online, and checking the relevant checkboxes, you agree to the terms and conditions of this agreement.

2. Introduction:

This is a multipurpose retainer for various areas of law. Some of the terms of this retainer, may not be relevant to you.

We will work with you towards your desired outcome. However, all legal issues are subject to many possible variables. For example, in court cases the outcome may depend on demeanor and recollection of witnesses, the availability of substantiating documents and other evidence, and the evidence presented by the other side. All of this affect the decision of a judge or jury. Accordingly, we cannot guarantee that your desired result will in fact be achieved. For us to work towards your desired outcome, it will be necessary for you to abide by the terms described in this agreement.

3. Scope of the Retainer:

In the online form, the lawyer will determine, if this retainer should have a full scope or a limited scope.

Full Scope Retainer: In a full scope retainer, we will be your lawyers of record and will do all correspondence and court appearances on your behalf. It means, you retain and instruct us to take such actions or prepare such documents, as we may consider necessary or proper on your behalf to conduct the matters on your behalf.

Limited Scope Retainer: In the limited scope retainer, we will only provide services you specifically requested us. We will not represent you in court, respond to communications in the matter, or provide any other service, unless you specifically request us to do so. We will not work as counsel of record in your matter. You may have to pay us legal fees every time you ask us to do something on your behalf.

4. Legal Aid Clients:

Legal Aid clients are dealt in accordance with Legal Aid Ontario guidelines. The financial clauses in this retainer are not applicable to such clients.

5. Retainer Amounts:

Depending on the Fee Type, you may be required to provide a retainer payment to us prior to opening and commencing work on your file. Your retainer will be placed in our trust account and will serve as a source of payment for your accounts when rendered. You will be asked to replenish the retainer from time to time. Any unused portion will be returned to you upon the completion or termination of our services.

We will send you interim accounts based on time spent on your file. Without in any way limiting the generality of the foregoing, you understand that such time may include document preparation, telephone calls, correspondence, conducting research, and attending meetings. You understand that the hourly rates to be charged are outlined in the Fees Schedule for Lawyers and Staff section.

6. Fees Schedule of Lawyers and Staff:

The fees in this retainer may not apply to real estate closing and block fee retainers. In contingency matters, a percent of these fees may still be charged. See the Contingency section for details.

We will be performing the work with the assistance of our staff. Our rates are outlined as follows:

• Principal Lawyer as outlined in the online retainer
• Associate Lawyers 80% of the Principal Lawyer Fee
• Law Students 60% of the Principal Lawyer Fee
• Legal Assistants 30% of the Principal Lawyer Fee.
• Administrative work 10% of the Principal Lawyer Fee

While we expect that our fee will be calculated based on our regular hourly rates, we reserve the right to charge more in appropriate cases, such as, but not limited to, pressing circumstances, the requirement for work outside normal business hours, exceptionally successful or efficient representation, or special demands on us. You will be charged HST (Harmonized Sales Tax – in Ontario, Canada) on fees.

It is also understood that we will advise you before undertaking any procedures that will require substantial amount of time or resources, which has not been discussed with you at the time of this retainer or after that. We will proceed only upon your instructions to do so unless it is a time sensitive matter.

Please note that, the minimum increment for any work done is 15 minutes. So, any communication that is less than 15 minutes may be charged at 15 minutes; and any communication more than 15 minutes but less than 30 minutes may be charged at 30 minutes and so on.

7. Expenses and Allocated Charges or Disbursements

You will also be responsible for disbursements on top of your legal fees. These are payments for expenses we incur on your behalf i.e., disbursements. These include, but are not limited to, long-distance calls, faxes, postage/couriers, deliveries, travel expenses, photocopying, printing, court fees, government filing fees and various searches in real estate matters, fees and various searches (e.g., corporate searches), the fees of agents who conduct investigations, searches and registrations, and all other reasonable out-of-pocket expenses and office charges.

We will advise you before undertaking any procedures that will substantially increase the amount of disbursement and will proceed only upon your instructions to do so unless it is a time sensitive matter.
You will be charged HST on some disbursements.

8. Urgent Matters

This matter will go with normal pace of our law firm unless it needs urgent attention. If you want us to deal with your matter on an urgent basis and/or at faster pace, this may increase the cost and fees outlined in this retainer.

9. Interest and Penalties

Payment is due on all our accounts when rendered. If any account is not paid within 30 days, an interest will be charged on the outstanding balance at a rate of prime plus 15% per year from the date of the account, until paid.

If an account is not paid in time, Maks Law Firm also reserves the rights to take several actions against you. These actions include but are not limited to register a lien against properties or assets you have an interest in; or a register security instrument (or debt) under Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) against your assets, owned directly or indirectly by you, e.g., These actions include, but are not limited to, register a lien against properties or assets you have an interest in; or a register security instrument (or debt) under Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) against your assets, that are owned directly or indirectly by you, e.g., your company, home, car etc., and you consent to any
such action. The beneficiary of such a lien or security instrument will be Maks Law Firm.

If an account is not paid in time, Maks Law Firm also reserves the rights to take several actions against you. These actions include, but are not limited to, register a lien against properties or assets you have an interest in; or a register security instrument (or debt) under Personal Property Security Act (PPSA) against your assets, that are owned directly or indirectly by you, e.g., your company, home, car etc., and you consent to any such action. The beneficiary of such a lien or security instrument will be Maks Law Firm.

Moreover, Maks Law Firm also reserves the rights to report non-payment to the collection agencies, make a claim in the appropriate court, for the balance, interest, and legal fees or any other cost of recovery.

10. Communication:

You acknowledge that the mode of communications, such as but not limited to emails, fax, phone calls, WhatsApp etc. between you, and your lawyer or his staff may not be secured.

You confirm the contact information you have provided in the online form is correct. You further confirm that any communication with you is confidential and consent to our firm contacting you at the information you have provided.

You also confirm that you will regularly check your email and phone for any communication sent to you. Please inform us of any change in this information as soon as possible. We will not be liable for any late communication, if you fail to inform us of any change or fail to check your email/phone messages.

We will try to return your phone calls or respond to your messages as quickly as possible, but we may not always be able to do so on the same day that you have left a message. If a matter is urgent, please send us an email, a text messages and a voice mail; and we will make every effort to respond to you as quickly as possible.

You also acknowledge that, we may communicate on your behalf with your family, the people who referred you to us, are helping you out in your matter, are paying for your legal expenses, came with you, or you asked us to consult them, whether you are in custody, or unavailable for other reasons.

If this retainer is with more than one person, the primary communication for the maters will be with the person whose name, email address and phone number appeared in the online form.

In the event of non-communication for a month on the phone number or email provided by you, we will close your file. We may ask for additional fees for re-opening your file.

11. Change of Lawyer, Co-Counsel or Transfer of File

We can transfer or get a one or more co-counsels (that are not a part of Maks Law Firm) on your file with your consent. If this consent couldn’t be reached, we can terminate this contract. Please see the Termination of Legal Services for more details.

The transfer or to have one or more co-counsels (that are not part of Maks Law Firm) on your file could be for several reasons. This may include, but is not limited to:

(a) A person or persons assisting the lawyer is/are not available.
(b) The lawyer is sick or is not available for any other reasons, such as but not limited to, illness in the family, time off from work, travel etc., and couldn’t properly represent you.
(c) The workload of the lawyer requires him/her to reduce the number of files, s/he is working on.
(d) It would be in the best interest of the client to co-counsel with one or more lawyers or transfer the file to another lawyer.
(e) Any other reason that, in the sole opinion of the lawyer, this file shall be transferred to or co-counseled with one or more lawyers.

12. Termination of Legal Services

You have the right to terminate our services to you upon a written notice to the principal lawyer.

Subject to our obligations to you to maintain proper standards of professional conduct, we reserve the right to terminate our services to you for good reasons which include, but are not limited to:

(a) If there is breakdown in lawyer-client relationship.
(b) if you fail to cooperate with us in any reasonable request.
(c) if our continuing to act would be unethical or impractical.
(d) if you fail to pay our accounts, legal fees, or retainer.
(e) if you fail to maintain the minimum amount required in your retainer. Or
(f) if you don’t agree with the change of counsel, suggested co-counsel(s), or the transfer of file as suggested by your lawyer (see Change of Lawyer, Co-Counsel or Transfer of File).

If you terminate our services or we withdraw, you will only have to pay our fees and expenses up until the time we stopped acting for you.
If there is a breakdown in lawyer-client relationship, you shall sign any documents necessary to end our relationship. If you refuse to sign the documents, the lawyer will take necessary steps to withdraw from your representation. You will be responsible for any cost incurred by the lawyer to withdraw from your representation.

13. Fee Payments:

Legal fees will be paid as follows:
(a) fee to open this file and review the file as indicated in the online form
(b) The fee for trial may not be included at this point.
(c) other fees, as the work is done on the file, in accordance with Fee Schedule in the online form.
You can pay any current or future payments in accordance with the instruction provided to you, or via a cheque, pay cash in person, or email money transfer ([email protected]).

If you have not paid all your fees fully in advance, and later change your mind, your strategy, or the direction, you will still be charged for the work done on your file.

14. Trust Account Balance

You shall keep a minimum trust account balance of the amount outlined in the online form. The balance in the trust account will be either returned to you at the closing of your matter, or will be used against closing cost of your file, such as, but not limited to, legal fee and cost for withdrawing from your representation, photocopies, printing, etc.

15. Contingency and Consent to Joint Retainer:

You also acknowledge that, it may be a joint retainer between you, and any other person or entity. If a potential conflict develops, you shall inform us. Before a I can act in this matter, I shall advise you that

(a) We may have been asked to act for more than one person or entity.

(b) No information received in connection with the matter from one person can be treated as confidential from the other persons to the retainer. and

(c) if a conflict develops that cannot be resolved between you and the other parties, we cannot continue to act for both or all of you and the lawyer may have to withdraw completely.

16. Severance.

If any provision or part-provision of this agreement is or becomes invalid, illegal or unenforceable, it shall be deemed modified to the minimum extent necessary to make it valid, legal and enforceable. If such modification is not possible, the relevant provision or part-provision shall be deemed deleted. Any modification to or deletion of a provision or part-provision under this clause shall not affect the validity and enforceability of the rest of this agreement or retainer.

17. Agreement

If this retainer is presented before a court for approval, you expressly agree to all the terms and conditions of this retainer, including but not limited to fees schedule of lawyers and staff, expenses and allocated charges or disbursements, fee payments, and contingency payments, etc.

You can rescind this agreement within 24 hours, if you didn’t have a chance to read all the terms, and you were not verbally informed about those terms. We will reimburse your retainer amount after deducting the cost of work performed, $300 initial consultation fee, and $100 administration fee. After 24 hours of agreeing to this agreement online or receiving a copy of this retainer in your email (whichever is later), this agreement becomes binding on all parties.

We wish to thank you for selecting our law firm to represent you. You may want to have this agreement reviewed by another lawyer.

You acknowledge having received a copy of this retainer online. If you don’t receive a copy within 2 hours, please inform us immediately.

By checking the checkboxes on the online form, you agree to all the terms and conditions of this retainer.