Engagement Letter Template (Page 3 of 4) in pdf

Our fees will be a percentage of the amount, if any, recovered, as proved in the

contingency fee agreement that [you have signed] [will be prepared for you to sign].

We will register that agreement with the Court of Queen’s Bench of Alberta.

Disbursements

Disbursements are payments we make to third parties to carry your matter forward.

Some examples of disbursements are charges for long distance telephone and fax,

courier, travel, process service, surveys, searches, transcripts, certificates.

Other

examples are fees payable to the Land Titles Office, Corporate Registry, and the court.

You’ll be responsible for paying our disbursements on your matter. You’ll also be

responsible for paying any GST on the disbursements.

Other charges

Regarding other charges for non-legal services, [Option 1] we will bill you only for

photocopying. All other items will be supplied as part of our fee. [Option 2] We will bill

for the following other charges, which will be shown under the fees heading on the bills

we send you: [Set out list of other charges].

If you have any questions about these charges, please call. We want you to have a full

understanding of the basis on which we charge for non-legal services.

Our fees are subject to GST, which will be added to your bill.

Retainers

Unless special arrangements are made, we require our clients to pay some up-front

money to cover the fees and disbursements for the next block of work to be done. We

keep this retainer money in a trust account, use it for disbursements as they are incurred,

and apply it to pay fees when we send you our bill. [Explain how any time limits that

may be involved in the particular case can be jeopardized if the retainer is not paid

before the time limit expires. If the client has already paid the retainer, acknowledge

receipt of it. ] When we submit a bill to you, we may ask you to bring the retainer back up

to its previous level.

Trust accounts

We maintain a separate bank account for money we hold in trust for our clients. The

Law Society has established very strict standards for these trust accounts. A professional

accountant reviews them annually and reports the results to the Law Society; the Law

Society also conducts spot audits.

In most cases, the interest on trust accounts goes to the Law Foundation of Alberta and

is used for law reform and public legal education. However, if we will be holding a large

sum in trust for you for an extended time, you can ask us to open a separate trust

account with the interest payable to you.

Billings

To keep you informed about how much the matter is costing you and to allow us to

continue to carry on business while the matter proceeds, we will send you an interim bill

every [e.g., month]. When your matter is completed, we’ll send a final bill. All bills,

including interim bills, are due when rendered. After 30 days, we charge interest on the

outstanding balance at [rate] per year until the bill is fully paid.

Engagement Letter Template Page 3