Yes, my office is in beautiful downtown New Westminster, BC. While I’m moving with the cutting edge of legal service delivery to make my services accessible to clients virtually, and to reduce the environmental footprint of my practice, family legal practice is still very much based on producing, storing and delivering paper, and on the face-to-face connection with clients. Request to meet in person if New West is handy to you, or opt for video conferencing or phone.

When a family lawyer offers a free half hour consult, the point of the exercise is to find out if they want to take on your case, and if you have the ability to pay. At the end of the half hour you may get the option of retaining the lawyer (a retainer of $5,000 or $10,000 is often requested at this point), but it is unlikely that you will have a full understanding of any other options.

My goal for an initial consultation is different: solid in-depth advice on your family legal issue, for you to take constructive steps forward. With or without further legal help.

This is the clunky, obscure term used by lawyers to describe a whole range of discrete legal services that clients can access without retaining a lawyer to represent them on all aspects of their case.

A lawyer who offers “unbundled legal services” is prepared and qualified to help self-represented litigants with such tasks as getting advice about their legal rights generally or in relation to a settlement offer or a court application, to “ghost-write” a letter or any document for use in court, to coach them to speak effectively for themselves in court--to give just a few examples.

That is often the real question. Family breakups and everything involved with them create incredible stress and uncertainty for individuals. 

Knowledge is power.

We will certainly try!
 

Most orders pronounced by a judge are pronounced in open court, after hearing evidence from the party applying for the order and, in most cases, from any party opposing the order. This includes orders divorcing married parties from each other.

However, when both parties to a marriage desire a divorce (or when one party is applying for a divorce and the other party is acquiescing to it), and there are no issues of child custody, child support, spousal support or marital property division (because those issues do not arise between the parties or they have been settled between the parties), the application and affidavit evidence in support of the divorce can be sent up by the court staff and put before a judge sitting at his/her desk. If the judge is satisfied with the evidence, s/he signs the divorce order and the court staff send it back to the party who applied for it. This is what we call a “desk order divorce”.

The evidence referred to above includes evidence that the acquiescing party has been properly served with the divorce papers in the first place, evidence that the grounds for divorce have been met under Canadian law, and (if there are children) evidence that the parties have made reasonable arrangements for the support of any children of the marriage.

The technical requirements of a desk order divorce application can be complicated, and many people find it much easier to have a lawyer guide them through the process and handle the technical aspects.

This question is a real “pain point” between clients and their lawyers. Clients want to know, and deserve to know. But usually the best a lawyer can do is give you a range of costs based on a range of potential paths and outcomes.

The vast majority of lawyers in Canada are still charging clients by the hour: that is, the lawyer tracks the amount of time they spend working on your file (in 1/10 of an hour increments), whether that’s emailing you, speaking with you on the phone, doing legal research applicable to your case, drafting documents, speaking in court, or even the time waiting in chambers court for your application to get called. Time spent does not necessarily translate to value received, or results obtained.

That pricing model, combined with all the factors that can prolong or complicate your path to resolution, means the only thing most lawyers can tell you for sure is how much they charge per hour.

Things are changing, in favour of clients.

More lawyers are educating themselves on how to ethically and effectively aid clients to manage their own legal issues with a little legal help, by offering “unbundled” legal services and “flat fee” service packages. That enables clients to put a brake on their legal expenses, and often to move toward resolution at the pace and price-point that best fits their needs.