Legal Fees
HOW MUCH DOES A LAWYER COST?
Many of our services are offered on a flat-rate basis. Where they are, some of those are listed below. Hourly rates, flat fees and the initial retainers required are all matters discussed and agreed upon between the client and lawyer before services start.
CRIMINAL FILES
There is an initial, non-refundable retainer required. Once disclosure is received and the complexity of the file is determined, the interviewing criminal defence lawyer in Edmonton quotes additional flat fees for the various lawyers in the office. The initial criminal retainer for our student starts at $1,00.00 plus GST. The initial criminal retainer for our most junior lawyer starts at $3,350.00 plus GST.
IMMEDIATE ROADSIDE SANCTION/NOTICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE PENALTY/ IMPAIRED DRIVING PROVINCIAL APPEALS
Impaired Driving Lawyers Edmonton provide legal guidance tailored to your case. The fee will depend on the experience level of the lawyer hired to work on the initial appeal and whether this is a first, second, or third occurrence. If you are not close to your filing deadline, for a first occurrence, we can open the file for an initial retainer of $1,350 plus GST to give you an opinion. That non-refundable retainer fee goes towards the appeal fees if it becomes apparent that there are arguments for the appeal. If the reviewing lawyer does not see arguments on the file, we will send the file to another lawyer in our office for a second opinion.
If you are within a day or two of the filing deadline, we normally recommend setting the matter down for appeal. The appeal fee is $2,950.00 plus GST (inclusive of the initial retainer) for our Student-at-Law. A Student-at-Law is a person who has his or her law degree but who is articling. Once the Student passes the bar courses and completes the year of articles, he or she will be admitted to the bar (which means the Student becomes a lawyer). If it turns out there are no viable arguments, the fees are refunded back to you (excluding the initial retainer).
So, if a client has paid for our opinion on the file, another $1,600 plus GST would be owing for our Student to draft the written submissions and present oral argument at the IRS appeal hearing. To have our most senior lawyer run the appeal, $5,700 plus GST, in addition to the initial retainer, would be owing. We have five other lawyers whose fees fall between those two. For a first occurrence, those fees are complete and include the $150 SafeRoads filing fee; there would be no additional costs.
If you are past the 7-day deadline to appeal your SafeRoads Notice of Administrative Penalty, we charge the regular fee for the opinion ($1,350 plus GST if it is a first occurrence) and if it appears you have arguments for a late review, then we ask for an additional $500 plus GST for the application to apply for a late review. If your application for a late review is successful, the rest of the regular appeal fees will apply.
If your IRS/SafeRoads appeal is successful there is no need to pay the $1,200 fine (for a first occurrence), the tow and impound fees are refunded (usually between $1,900 and $3,300), there is no need to pay for ignition interlock (roughly $2,000) and insurance rates do not go up. We are hearing that insurance rates go up by between $3,000 and $5,000 per year for roughly five years. When it is successful, the legal cost for the IRS appeal more than pays for itself.
FAMILY LAW MATTERS
Most family law services are billed on an hourly rate. An initial retainer of $7,500 is normally, but not always, required The hourly rate varies with the experience of the lawyer hired. We are open to discussing flat fees for discrete, unbundled services.
