A plain account of what happens next

2 of 6

You do not have to have decided anything before you talk to a lawyer. Most people who sit down with us are still working out whether there is anything to decide. That is a reasonable thing to book an hour for, and it is what the first hour is for.

You tell us where things stand, in whatever order it comes out. We ask the questions that decide which route is open to you: how long you lived together, who is on title, whether there are children, whether anyone has moved out yet. Then we tell you what your options are, what each one is likely to cost, and which one we would take if the file were ours.

You leave with that written down. One page, plain English, yours to keep whether you come back or not.

There is no follow-up sequence and nobody telephones you afterwards. If you decide in three days, good. If you decide in eight months, the file is still here and the page you took home still holds.

3 of 6

The part people dread asking about goes first, because a fee you cannot see is a fee you cannot plan around. These are fixed. They are agreed in writing before the work starts, and if the scope of a matter changes we revise the estimate in writing before we carry on.

1. First meeting, one hour$250
2. Separation agreement, uncontested$1,800
3. Divorce order, uncontested, filed$1,200
4. Parenting plan, negotiated$2,400
5. Mediation, attended, per half day$900

Court filing fees are set by the province and passed on at cost.

Hourly work exists for matters that cannot be quoted, which in family law usually means the other side has gone to court. We will tell you when a matter has crossed that line, and we will tell you before it does, not after.

We also say when mediation fits, and it often does. It resolves faster and it pays us less, and both of those are true at once.

4 of 6

What makes this feel impossible is that nobody tells you the order of things. Here is the order of things, for a separation that settles, which most of them do.

1. You book a time

   Online, without a phone call and without a box asking your reason for enquiring. Evenings are available.

2. We talk for an hour

   You get your options, the cost of each, and a written summary before you leave.

3. We gather the facts

   Income, property, debts, dates. Dull, and the whole matter turns on it being right.

4. We put a proposal to the other side

   In writing, in terms you have read and approved first.

5. It settles, or it goes to mediation

   Roughly nine files in ten end here, as an agreement signed by both of you.

6. The paperwork is filed

   The agreement or the divorce order goes to the registry. Then you are done.

5 of 6

Two lawyers, family law only, and your file stays with the one you met. There is no handing down to a junior you have never spoken to, and no reintroducing yourself to somebody new in month four.

1. M. Alder, K.C.Called to the BC bar in 2004. Collaborative law training. Reads the property files.
2. R. WoodwardCalled to the BC bar in 2013. Parenting coordination. Takes the files with children in them.

Escalation is expensive and mostly optional. The job is to get you out of this chapter with your money, your parenting time and your composure intact, and files that stay out of court do that faster and for a fraction of the cost.

6 of 6

One hour, a fixed fee, and a plan on paper. That is the whole of what you are agreeing to when you book.

This page keeps no record of your visit. There is nothing here that counts, watches or remembers you.