Why there are no contingency fee arrangements in family law?

Contingency fee arrangements involve an arrangement where a client will pay their total lawyer fees only if the lawyer achieves a certain result for them. Most often these contingency fee arrangements are used in personal injury cases and are often a percentage of the value of the property recovered in the proceeding or action.

In most jurisdictions, including Ontario, contingency fee arrangements are not allowed to be used by family law lawyers. This has been set out in the legislation that governs all Ontario lawyer, the Solicitors Act. Family law lawyers also do not charge client a result-achieved fee as this is also considered to be a prohibited contingency fee arrangement.

Given the nature of family law proceedings and the issues that involved (including but not limited to, custody and access to children, support and property division), it has been determined  that it is inappropriate for a lawyer to have a contingency fee arrangement with a client in these matters.

In lieu of a contingency fee arrangement, family law lawyers tend to use retainer agreements with their clients that set out their hourly rates. Most family law lawyers will also require their clients to pay a retainer, which is a deposit into their trust account, prior to the commencement of their matter. It is only after the lawyer has billed the client for the time spent on their matter that they transfer the money from the trust account to their general account for payment. If at the end of the matter there is money left in trust, this money is returned to the client. However, if the matter is ongoing and the retainer has been depleted, the client will need to either top-up or provide an additional retainer to the lawyer.

For information on your family law matter, contact Krol & Krol by calling 905.707.3370.