Barrie Hayes, Partner
There is no doubt that hiring a lawyer to represent you in Family Court can be a very expensive undertaking.
One alternative to entering into a comprehensive Family Court retainer with a lawyer is to retain the lawyer to provide a specific service or undertaking in relation to your Family Court proceeding.
Limited retainer, or bundled legal services, is an arrangement wherein the client retains a lawyer to assist in a predetermined level of legal services. The legal services could be limited to the preparation of one or several of the necessary family law pleadings (i.e. financial statement, application, affidavit) or involve retaining a lawyer to attend only on specific court appearances.
Our firm, which engages in providing bundled legal services, can provide cost efficiencies by assigning the preparation of pleadings by assigning the preparation of the documents to clerks or paralegals who are supervised by family law lawyers.
A client retaining a lawyer on a bundle legal services basis is usually required to execute a retainer which clearly defines the nature and extent of the legal services the client is retaining the lawyer to provide.