Maybe you’ve read our Blogs casually and unexpectedly find that you need a lawyer, so you reach out to our firm excitedly expecting to work with one of the regular contributors to these Blogs.
Maybe you’ve Googled “Lawyers Etobicoke” and our name popped up as the first one.
Maybe a friend’s cousin’s dog sitter heard we are a great firm to work with.
Whatever brings you to see if we can help, there are a few things you need to know:
- We are a business law firm. While we do Estate Planning in addition to representing businesses, generally, if you’re not a business, we’re not the law firm for you.
- We need a copy of your Articles of Incorporation if you’re incorporated. This is a “know your client” requirement of the Law Society of Ontario (“LSO”) and will be used to prepare the retainer described below.
- We need to verify the instructing person’s photo ID. We use a third-party application, vaulti.io, to do this. This is another “know your client” requirement of the LSO.
- We require a written retainer agreement before we can start working with you. This document sets out the basis on which we will provide legal advice to your business.
- We require an initial monetary retainer. This is your money, kept in our Trust Account and applied to your invoices until exhausted. After that, our terms are net 30, with the exception of mandatory Trust Retainer top-ups prior to Superior Court Trials or in other situations.
If we cannot help you, we’ll either refer you to a lawyer who may be able to help or suggest you search LSO.ca for the type of lawyer you are looking for.
The inspiration for this post was the person who called me a few choice names when I advised that we could not assist. Please note that calling anyone in our firm names will not result in us deciding we’d love to work with you. We would not.
Inga B. Andriessen, Senior Lawyer