Hiring a Lawyer

HOW TO HIRE A LAWYER [exerpt]:

REMEMBER – when you are referred to as the ‘client’, it is being insinuated that you are the employee. In fact, you are the employer. THE LAWYER IS YOUR EMPLOYEE. You are in charge of the manner in which your affairs are to be handled by your attorney. You need to know what services are available to you and your spouse to resolve matters without litigation. You need to control your costs. HOW TO HIRE A LAWYER: it is essential that you come to an agreement with your lawyer as to the nature of the services or advice you are to receive from him/her and what you are willing to pay. You must agree on the hourly wage you will pay your new employee. Lawyers usually charge an hourly rate plus court time. If the lawyer restricts his/her practice to a particular area of expertise, rates may vary from $250/hour to $450/hour. One day’s work may constitute $2000 to $3600. Court time is time spent arguing interim motions or presenting your case at trial. This usually costs a further $1,500.00 to $2,000.00 per day pro-rated. Thus, a two-week trial on custody, maintenance or division of property may well result in legal fees in excess of $40,000.00 for each party. This is in after tax dollars and it is not an expense that will be reimbursed by your spouse or by any other source. Your total family resources will have diminished some $80,000.00. Given the fact that the divorce rate is hovering around fifty-percent, it is necessary to get a better handle on how to survive a divorce with some semblance of financial integrity, albeit, not entirely intact.

Mr. Justice Huband in speaking for a three member panel of the Manitoba Court of Appeal recently warned the public of the cost of litigation in these words: “I thank counsel for both parties for their excellent written and oral arguments. At the same time, I raise a question as to whether the parties are being well served by being subjected to a very expensive process to resolve an issue involving a few hundred dollars per month. To some extent the expenditure of thousands over an issue of hundreds may reflect an intractable position taken by one or both of the parties. And perhaps some of the cost could be avoided by different advice from their respective legal counsel. But additionally, part of the problem may be found in the rules of court governing these disputes..........I would wish for a simpler summary method on motions of this kind. There must be a less expensive way of dealing with a problem of the kind presented in this case. Either the courts will devise a new methodology that is less expensive, or others in society will devise a method which by-passes the court process”.