Retainer and Summary of Services and Advice

This agreement is intended to be client-oriented.  Please review it by reading it carefully more than once.  If you have questions or propose to change any language or term please contact the lawyer.  

Client:   born        Client File:

Telephone:   

E:mail:

RetainerAgreement

Lawyer: Kenneth W. Golish

302-380 Ouellette Ave

Windsor, Ont.   N9A 6X5

Telephone: (519) 965-2732  Fax: (226) 773-0538 

golishlaw.com  golish18@golishlaw.com

Date: ??????????????

Highlights of Agreement:

Initial Minimum Deposit of Funds: $ TO BE INSERTED

Block Fee option to be offered after disclosure received, the choice between one for a resolution, the other for a trial, calculated on the basis of a lower rate.

Hourly Rate $  TO BE INSERTED    basis, if block fee option declined, subject to change

Details of Agreement:

"Disbursements" shall mean all out-of-pocket expenses made by the Lawyer or by the Client or anyone else who advances the litigation herein or is required to be paid pursuant to such litigation including all court costs, the costs of medical records, reports, investigations, witness fees and any other expenses by which the Lawyer expends money for the Client or incurs a liability therefore.    Disbursements include all in-office expenses such as printing, faxes, telephone charges, postage and courier charges, actual or estimated.  Where taxes are applicable for disbursements, disbursements include such taxes.

“Fee or Fees" shall mean the amount of any fee or fees charged by the Lawyer to the Client for professional and other services to represent the client in court at Windsor on the charges listed below. 

A mistaken reference to gender, for example ‘he’ for ‘she’ or ‘her’ or ‘him’ shall be considered to be read as amended as necessary.  “They or “them” are neutral as to gender or number.

This is a full retainer agreement between the lawyer and client.  Subject to other provisions in this writing, the agreement continues to the conclusion of the criminal prosecution, but unless the lawyer i additionally retained, does not include any subsequent appeal from those proceedings.

Nature of Client's Legal Requirements: The lawyer is retained to represent the client to   The client is not in custody.  This agreement may cover charges which arise later if the client explicitly or implicitly requests the lawyer to defend those charges and the lawyer agrees to act, but the fee for those later charges will be in addition to the fee herein and the terms may be different.

Immediate Needs:  Obtain and review disclosure of the prosecution brief, and make recommendations to the client.

Obligation of the Lawyer:   The lawyer will advise the client about the client’s options at each stage of the proceedings and make recommendations regarding those options.  Where instructed to do so, the lawyer will appear in court whenever the client’s attendance is required, whether in person or by counsel, for all adjournments, pretrial conferences, judicial interim release proceedings, preliminary hearings, and trials.  The lawyer may delegate to another lawyer, duty counsel or law student the responsibility of one or more routine appearances on his behalf.  As necessary, the lawyer will conduct negotiations and communications with prosecutors, police offices, relations of the client, witnesses and others.  Such discussions and negotiations will be at the lawyer’s discretion without the need for special instructions from the client, but the client may specifically limit negotiations and discussions as he or she wishes.

Client Instructions to Counsel: It is the client’s right to pursue or waive any procedure, to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty to one or more charges, to testify or not testify at any stage of the proceedings, and to admit all or some of the allegations on any given charge when either entering a plea of guilty or not guilty.  The lawyer may ask the client to confirm one or more of those instructions in writing.  The lawyer, Kenneth W. Golish, will follow the instructions of his client, whether or not those instructions are in accord with the lawyer’s advice, except where some rule does not permit him to do so, in which case the client may have to pursue his/her desired course of conduct on his/her own without the assistance of the lawyer for some or all of the subsequent proceedings.

Client’s obligation to maintain contact with lawyer: In order to properly prepare for trial, the lawyer may need to regularly or periodically communicate with the client.  Should the client’s intentions change regarding the proposed proceeding, the lawyer’s time may be unnecessarily expended if he isn’t aware of this.  The client shall therefore notify the lawyer of any change of address, employment, or other contact information.  If the lawyer is later unable to reach the client because the client’s contact information is not current, the lawyer may apply to the court for removal from the record.

Confidentiality : Certain communications between the lawyer and client are confidential. As a general rule, the requirement of confidentiality will continue not only throughout the period of representation, but forever.  The client’s communications with other persons, including family and friends about the case, are generally not confidential, even when the lawyer is present.  The client should not meet with the lawyer in the presence of others unless he/she has already discussed the details of the case with those others and is indifferent to the risk of certain information being passed on further.  Other persons do not include persons who are lawyers, students or staff or anyone else assisting in the representation of the client.

Not all the information a client passes to his/her or lawyer can be classified as confidential.  For instance, information such as marriage status, occupation or home address, and information for which the public may have ready access is not, and thus the lawyer will not be in error in passing on this information in the course of representing the client.  For other kinds of information, the client may implicitly or explicitly allow the lawyer to reveal that information as part of the work the lawyer does.

Initial retainer deposit: The non-refundable retainer fee of $        is required.  It is expected that the lawyer will ask for further payments and all requested funds must be paid as required.  All funds paid in advance will be deposited in the lawyer’s mixed trust account, to be applied to satisfy the payment of interim accounts and the final account for fees and disbursements to be rendered when and how the lawyer feels it is necessary.  The total of all fees and disbursements may exceed the total of all deposits, but where deposits exceed the final account, the excess will be refunded to the client.  

Cash bail: Where the client has cash bail on deposit, the lawyer may request an irrevocable assignment of all or part of the funds on deposit.  Since those funds may be subject to forfeiture or be applied to the client’s obligation to pay a fine or restitution however, the assignment is only a matter of convenience for the client and if paid to the lawyer, the payment will be on account of fees.

A fee offer will be proposed after disclosure is received.  The crossed-out portion below is only an example.

Block fee to be offered: The lawyer may offer a lower or higher block fee at a later point.  Until further notice, however, here the lawyer offers a block fee of $        , inclusive of HST, but not out-of-office disbursements, if the client is prepared to plead guilty at an early opportunity.  If the client wishes to proceed to trial, in the event the trial is expected to last three hours or less, the block fee will be $          , for a one-day trial $      .

Fees where block fee offer declined: Fees, except where otherwise stated do not include 13% HST:  HST will be in addition. The lawyer’s fee for services for preparation and communications and routine court appearances will be at a rate of $      per hour and for each half day in court for a preliminary hearing or trial,       $      .  These rates are subject to change on notice or negotiation, and may even increase, if circumstances justify.  There is no charge for the preparation of this agreement.  The lawyer and the client may subsequently agree to a retainer for one or more specific services on a non-refundable block fee basis, without regard to the anticipated or actual hours of those services.

Legal Aid: The lawyer cannot represent the client on a cash basis if he/she is legally aided at the same time.  If at some point or for some period, the client can no longer afford to pay the lawyer and the client then qualifies for legal aid or a court appointment where the responsibility for payment of lawyer’s fee with go to the Province of Ontario, the lawyer acknowledges that he will continue with this retainer on either basis.  The client acknowledges that legal aid or a court appointment will be provided by or administered by Legal Aid Ontario, which agency may be require the client to enter into a contribution agreement, agree to a lien on his/her property or an assignment of moneys on deposit.

Services to Date:

The client and the lawyer have not reviewed the disclosure and the client has not yet instructed the lawyer to proceed to trial or not.

The lawyer has not yet received disclosure documents from the Crown Attorney’s Office,

End of Lawyer – Client Relationship:  This relationship may end if the client dismisses the lawyer if he/she chooses to do so.  If the client chooses to dismiss the lawyer he/she shall do so in writing, settle any fees or accounts owing and sign a confirmation addressed to the court acknowledging the dismissal of the lawyer.  The relationship may otherwise end because of the death or disability of the lawyer or if the lawyer ceases to be in private practice, or if the lawyer for just cause withdraws from the relationship.  Just cause may arise where the client does not provide retainer deposits when requested, or if the client refuses to give the lawyer instructions, or makes herself or himself unavailable for those instructions, or where the client expects the lawyer to do something that violates his professional responsibilities as a lawyer.  Other circumstances may arise, but in any event, the end of the lawyer’s representation will normally be on notice to the client and only with the approval of the court upon a formal application to remove counsel.  The lawyer will not unnecessarily compromise confidential information in such an application and confidential information will be preserved after the relationship ends.

Prior Account and Relationship: The client acknowledges that he/she has not retained the Lawyer in the past.

Agreement signed voluntarily: The client acknowledges that he/she has either waived his/her right to do so or sought the advice of someone else, including a lawyer, before signing it.

Current Instructions:

Copy of agreement: The client acknowledges that he/she has received a copy of this agreement and that he/she wishes to

Date:

Signed*  at  

________________________________________________

Client:

_______________________________________________

Signed*  at Windsor Ontario

Lawyer: Kenneth W. Golish

* Signing of document may be virtually, including by an e-mail acknowledgement that the party signing accepts the agreement.

 Continuing Summary of Services and Advice

Please read this agreement carefully.  If contract is acceptable, just write back that you accept it and are signing it by that acknowledgement or send an image of your signature on a blank background for insertion in the document.  If you find something in error or there is a term you don't agree with, please let me know.

You will also receive a designation of counsel for your signature and mine.  Likewise, please sign it virtually by acknowledging it by return e-mail or by sending an image of your signature.

For my records only, please take a day or two to write out a narrative of the events of the allegation, including about the background of your relationship, such as marriage date and children, etc. and include details of place, date and time of the event.  You can create your statement by typing it into an e-mail or message or if it easier to write it out by hand on in a Word document.  It doesn't have to be long:  A word count of 300 to 700 is probably about right.