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Lawyer-Client Contract

Lawyer-Client Contract

Warning: Filling out the form below does not mean that we will start working on your file. If you have a deadline, you are responsible to contact us, arrange for the payment and ensure we have all your documents and can meet your deadline!

Retainer Agreement

This contract aims to summarize and confirm the terms and the scope of legal services we provide to you. This Agreement is a legal document and forms an enforceable contract between you and AGL Law. We recommend that you consider whether you want to have this agreement reviewed by another lawyer.

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*** PLEASE READ CAREFULLY - Choose one or more service(s) - TAXES, APPLICATION FEES, GOVERNMENT FEES, ETC. ARE "NOT" INCLUDED IN THE QUOTED FEE. IF YOUR MATTER IS A NON-ROUTINE MATTER EXTRA FEES APPLY WHICH WILL BE DETERMINED ON INDIVIDUAL BASIS.***
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Disclaimer Regarding Non-Payment of Legal Fees: Please be advised that in accordance with the Rules and Code of Professional Conduct of the Law Society of British Columbia, our continued representation is conditional upon timely payment of legal fees. In the event of non-payment: We reserve the right to cease all work on your legal matter without further notice. You will be solely responsible for securing alternative legal representation to ensure the continuity and protection of your legal interests. In Federal Court matters, including applications for leave and judicial review, we may withdraw from the proceeding, and your application may be deemed abandoned. This could result in the permanent loss of your opportunity to challenge the immigration decision and to seek any relief from the Federal Court in that matter. By signing this agreement, you acknowledge and accept these terms and understand the serious consequences of failing to maintain payment of our fees as agreed.
ID VERIFICATION: Lawyers are required to follow client identification and verification procedures when retained by a client to provide legal services. Accordingly, before we begin work on your behalf, we will require information from you concerning your identity. In addition, for some transactional work, we will require information to verify your identity (to confirm who you are) before the transaction occurs.
SUPERVISION: You are entering into a contract to receive the above-noted immigration services from AGL Law Corporation, supervised by the following licenced professionals: Samin Mortazavi lawyer and Ali-Reza Haghjou RCIC-IRB.
PAYMENT OF RETAINER: Before we begin work on your behalf, we require a retainer in the amount quoted above. The retainer will be placed in our trust account and will serve as a source of payment for all or part of our account or accounts when rendered. You will be asked to replenish the retainer from time to time. Any unused portion will be returned to you upon the completion or termination of our services.
PAYMENT OF RETAINER FEE BY A THIRD PARTY: If the retainer fee is paid by someone other than the client (the 'Payor'), the funds will be held in trust for the client. The client retains full authority over the funds and is the sole party entitled to direct the use or request a refund of any unearned funds, unless otherwise agreed in writing by the client and the Payor. Any disputes regarding reimbursement between the client and the Payor are to be resolved between those parties and do not involve the law firm.
DOCUMENTS: We do not verify the authenticity or accuracy of the documents you provide us. It is your responsibility to ensure the accuracy and legitimacy of all documents submitted as part of the application. We are not responsible for any loss or liability resulting from the misrepresentation, falsification, or presentation of fake or forged documents by you or any third party, including your previous lawyer or regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant. We may cease representation if there is a loss of confidence, non-cooperation, unreasonable expectations, failure to take advice from counsel, or non-payment of our fees.
DELIVERING DOCUMENTS: Our main way of communicating with you is through email. Please make sure that the email address you provide us is the one that you monitor often. Any other way of communication does not count as a reference. We DO NOT ACCEPT any documents by email, WhatsApp. Telegram, etc.
TRAVEL FEE: If we have to travel to another city, outside of Greater Vancouver in which case we need you to pay for the travel, accommodation, and other related fees. Hourly fee: If we are working on an hourly basis, our hourly fee is $300-$500 per hour depending on the lawyer.
LIMITED SCOPE: Our retainer agreement is limited to the services we agreed to provide to you.
CLIENT COOPERATION: As lawyers, we work based on the documents you provide us such as your university transcripts, job letters, bank statements, etc. Verification of Documents: We cannot verify the authenticity of those documents. We will not take any steps to verify them. It is your responsibility to check and ensure their accuracy.
REPRESENTATION CESSATION: We can and will stop representing you for loss of confidence, non-cooperation, unreasonable expectations, not taking advice from your counsel, and non-payment of our fees.
CONSENT TO ASK FOR YOUR FILE INFORMATION: We will ask your previous lawyer or regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant for documents in your file and for Judicial Reviews and immigration cases (all the documents they have submitted on your behalf) if they misrepresent or falsify documents or present fake or forged documents we cannot and will not be held liable for any loss you may incur. Further, we cannot be held liable for any loss you incur if your previous lawyer or regulated Canadian immigration consultant does not cooperate with us.
NO GUARANTEE: We will work with you toward your desired outcome; However, all legal actions are subject to many possible variables, all of which affect an adjudicator’s decision; accordingly, we cannot guarantee that your desired result will be achieved. Representation Cessation: We can and will stop representing you for loss of confidence, non-cooperation, unreasonable expectations, not taking advice from your counsel, and non-payment of our fees.
RELEASE: Neither AGL Law nor any of its employees or contractors accept any responsibility with respect to the transfer and deposit of your payment through any currency exchange business, even if the name of that currency exchange business was given to you by Pax Law staff or appeared on Pax Law’s website.
DISBURSEMENTS: You will be responsible for reimbursing us for expenses, also called disbursements, we incur on your behalf, and that must be paid to third parties. These include postage, deliveries, travel expenses, out-of-office photocopying, and printing, government filing and search charges, the fees of agents who conduct investigations, searches and registrations, and all other reasonable out-of-pocket expenses. If an unusual disbursement or expense arises involving substantial costs, such as, for example, fees for expert evidence, we will consult with you before incurring that cost. You will also be responsible for office charges allocated to your file. These include charges for paralegal time.
PACKAGE SERVICES: Package services are priced below what you would pay if you were to pay for each service individually. Performing some of the services in a package might not be possible due to circumstances of your matter. No partial refund will be issued if there is no need or if it is legally impossible to perform all the services in a package. You are always welcome to pay the regular fee and not sign up for a package.
TAXES: You will be charged the applicable taxes on fees and on some disbursements or other charges. This tax might or might not be included in the fee quoted above, please read the terms and condition of the service you choose carefully.
CLOUD-BASED STORAGE: The firm uses cloud-based programs to store client files and business records. Some of these programs may use servers located outside of Canada. You acknowledge that these programs may create some risks to the security of your information.
RUSH FEE: We reserve the right to charge an additional 30% on the quoted fees if the service you request is a rush service. We will discuss the additional charge with you before beginning work on your file.
BIOMETRIC FEE: For immigration applications, whomever who does not have a valid biometric results must pay $85 to acquire the same.
CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT FEES: If at any time prior to the completion of your matter, any of the application fees, government fees, or taxes increase, you are responsible for paying the difference between what you have already paid and what are the new fees.
DEFAULT: In the case of installment payments, the full outstanding balance becomes due if any single payment is missed.
FIXED FEE CONTRACTS (RETAINER AGREEMENTS): Prior to working on your file if you ask for a refund we will issue you a full refund. If we have worked on your file and you are unilaterally cancelling the contracts, you will be charged for every hour we worked on your file at an hourly rate of $400 plus applicable taxes. We currently only offer installment payments for REFUGEE APPLICATION and REFUGEE PACKAGE APPLICATIONS, and in the future, we might offer installments for other services as well. For installment packages we will issue an invoice at the beginning and then will apply your installment payments toward that unpaid invoice as you make the payment. Extra fees apply to exceptional circumstances as defined below.
EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES: The fees quoted above for flat fee services are for ordinary applications. Responding to procedural fairness letters, providing more than one update in the process of a temporary resident visa application prior to the first determination, responding to inadmissibility concerns, and other extra ordinary tasks are charged at the rate of $400 per hour.
JOINT RETAINERS ONLY: We confirm that we agree to act for both of you jointly with respect to this matter. Representing you jointly simply means that we will be engaged by both of you to act on the same matter at the same time. We are allowed to act jointly for clients only when their interests are not in conflict. We believe your interests are currently not in conflict; however, it is possible that your interests could diverge or even conflict in the future. (a) We owe each of you a duty of undivided loyalty. This means that we must act in each of your best interests at all times and must not favour the interests of one of you over the interests of another or allow anything to interfere with our loyalty to each of you or our judgement on your behalf. If we are unable to fulfill this duty of undivided loyalty to each of you, we will have to withdraw. (b) No information we receive from one of you or from any other source with respect to this matter can be treated as confidential from either of you. This means that, as long as the joint retainer continues, we must disclose relevant information to both of you. However, should we receive information from any source that makes it clear we are in a conflict by acting for you jointly, or if a contentious issue arises between you, we must cease acting for both of you in the matter unless the conflict/contentious issue is resolved. In the event the conflict/contentious issue is not resolved, however, we would not be permitted to disclose the confidential information to you. (c) If we currently act for one of you in a matter separate from this one and we receive confidential information from that separate matter that is relevant to this matter, we will have to withdraw from this matter unless we receive the consent of the client in the separate matter to disclose that information. (d) If a conflict/contentious issue arises between you, you have the option to settle the conflict/contentious issue by direct negotiation with one another, or if you both agree that you wish us to assist you in attempting to resolve an issue we may decide to do so, as long as the issue in our view falls short of an actual conflict/contentious issue between you. If a conflict/contentious issue is resolved by direct negotiation between you, or if an issue short of an actual conflict/contentious issue is resolved with or without our assistance, we may then continue to represent both of you. (e) If a conflict/contentious issue arises between you that is not resolved, then we will cease to represent both of you and we will refer you to other lawyers.
TERMINATION: TERMINATION: Under the rules of the Law Society of British Columbia, the conditions for terminating a retainer agreement differ for clients and lawyers. Client Termination: Clients have the right to terminate the solicitor-client relationship at any time and for any reason. This unilateral right allows clients to end the retainer agreement without providing specific grounds for termination. The client is still responsible to pay the fees up to the termination and any fees involved in termination. Lawyer Termination: Lawyers, however, must adhere to specific guidelines when seeking to terminate a retainer agreement. According to section 3.7 of the Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia, a lawyer must not withdraw from representation except for good cause and on reasonable notice to the client. Permissible reasons for lawyer withdrawal include: Serious Loss of Confidence: If there has been a serious loss of confidence between the lawyer and the client, withdrawal is permitted. Non-Payment of Fees: A lawyer may withdraw if the client fails to pay fees, but only after providing reasonable notice. Obligatory Withdrawal: In certain situations, a lawyer is required to withdraw, such as when: The client terminates the relationship. The client insists on instructing the lawyer to act contrary to professional obligations. The lawyer is not competent to continue handling the matter. Special Considerations: Contingency Fee Agreements: When a retainer is pursuant to a contingency fee agreement, special circumstances apply. A lawyer cannot withdraw from representation for reasons other than those set out in Rule 3.7-7 unless the written contingency contract specifically states that the lawyer has a right to do so and outlines the circumstances under which this may occur. Non-Payment of Fees: While non-payment of fees can be a ground for withdrawal, a lawyer must ensure that the withdrawal does not cause serious prejudice to the client. Additionally, there must be sufficient time for the client to obtain another lawyer, and the new lawyer must have adequate time to prepare for trial. In all cases, lawyers must continue to uphold their duties of confidentiality and professionalism, ensuring that the client's interests are protected during the termination process.
AUTHORIZATION TO RELEASE INFORMATION AND TO RECEIVE INSTRUCTIONS: I ask you to share my application information and to receive instructions from the following person.
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