www.canadianlawyermag.com 17
Legal fees in a most
unusual year
Canadian Lawyer's 2021 Legal Fees Survey shows lawyers' rates rising
marginally, but total bill often lower due to efficiencies prompted by COVID-19
IT'S BEEN a strange year, to say the least, in
the legal world.
Virtually all in-court proceedings have
become virtual — as in remote teleconfer-
encing or videoconferencing — with courts
closed or limiting in-court appearances.
Documents are now submitted electronically,
so binding and printing duties have become
SPECIAL REPORT
LEGAL FEES
almost non-existent. And travelling to and
from the courthouse or flying in expert
witnesses has become a thing of the past.
Canadian Lawyer's 2021 Legal Fees Survey
comes out when we are almost at the end of
the tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic —
thanks to vaccines now deployed throughout
the country. But we are not quite there yet,
and lawyers still do not know precisely how
the future will look and what impact the
pandemic will ultimately have on legal fees
and the costs of running a business.
This year's survey shows a continuation of
the trend of years of slight fee increases, year
over year. The percentage of firms that say
they had already raised or would raise their
