Lawyers: directory of firms

Every law society keeps a public directory, and checking one takes about a minute. The Law Society of British Columbia's lawyer directory lists the names, contact information and current practice status of lawyers licensed in the province, and shows whether a lawyer has a discipline history, a restriction from practising in an area of law, or a current regulatory proceeding. It also states plainly that the Law Society cannot provide referrals and that the information may not be the most current available, so treat it as a starting point rather than the last word.

Other provinces publish the same kind of tool. The Law Society of Alberta runs an online lawyer directory built as a quick way for the public to find a lawyer in Alberta, and the Barreau du Québec's directory recommends reviewing a lawyer's current membership status and whether any disciplinary complaints have been filed before you engage them. Regulators build these directories for exactly this purpose: use them, even when the name came from someone you trust.

One licence check answers a question that marketing cannot. A licensed lawyer is insured, bound by conduct rules, subject to a complaints process, and accountable for the client money they hold. Someone practising without a licence is none of those things, whatever their website says.

Canada's law societies regulate more than lawyers. Quebec notaries are regulated legal professionals in their own right, and in Ontario licensed paralegals are regulated by the law society alongside lawyers. Which of them may handle your matter depends on the field and the province, so ask directly rather than assuming that every legal professional can do every job.

Federal immigration law shows how sharply those lines can be drawn. Section 91 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act makes it an offence to knowingly represent or advise a person for consideration in connection with an application unless you are a member in good standing of a law society, including a paralegal, a member of the Chambre des notaires du Québec, or a member of the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants. Other fields have their own boundaries, and a professional who is honest about where theirs sits is worth more than one who is not.

Four billing models cover most legal work. Hourly billing charges for time recorded against your file, often at different rates for a senior lawyer, a junior lawyer and a law clerk. A flat fee covers a defined piece of work from start to finish, and suits predictable matters such as an incorporation or a simple will. A retainer is money paid up front and held in trust, drawn down as work is done and topped up when it runs low. A contingency arrangement ties the lawyer's fee to the result and appears mainly in injury work.

Whatever the model, disbursements are separate: filing fees, court costs, expert reports, searches and process servers are the firm's out-of-pocket costs, passed on to you. Ask which disbursements a matter like yours usually attracts, whether taxes are on top, how often you will be billed and what happens to any trust balance at the end. A firm that answers those questions clearly in writing tends to run the rest of the file the same way.

Some legal deadlines are absolute. Under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, everyone arrested or detained has the right to retain and instruct counsel without delay and to be informed of that right, which is the moment to use it rather than talk your way out of a situation. If you have a court date and no lawyer, duty counsel exist for that day: Legal Aid Ontario describes duty counsel as lawyers who can quickly assess a client's legal problems and provide advice, information and representation, separate from its certificate program, which funds a private lawyer over the longer term.

Civil claims expire. British Columbia's Limitation Act sets a basic limitation period barring a court proceeding more than two years after the day the claim is discovered, with an ultimate limitation period of fifteen years from the act or omission the claim is based on. Every province sets its own periods and its own exceptions, and once a limitation period passes, the strongest case in the world is over. If you think you may have a claim, find out which clock applies before you spend weeks negotiating.