Canadian Lawyer

w w w . C A N A D I A N L a w y e r m a g . c o m J U N E 2 0 1 5 33 fter years of steady decline, Canadian litigation fees have finally returned to the heights of the pre- global-recession era, but Canadian lawyers aren't happy about it. According to the results of Canadian Law- yer's 2015 Legal Fees Survey, the national aver- age estimated cost of a two-day trial crossed the $30,000 threshold for the first time, leaping 43 per cent to $31,330 this year from $21,953 in 2014. The previous peak for a two-day trial came in 2009, when responses averaged around $29,000, but then dropped every year until 2013, when the average fee hit $18,000. The fall was arrested in 2014 with a 19-per-cent jump, but that was dwarfed by the 2015 hike. At $56,439, the national average cost of a five-day trial was up 30 per cent over 2014, while the cost of a seven-day trial was also up around 40 per cent at $81,958. But that doesn't mean the boom times are back, according to some of our respondents. One Ontario sole practitioner lamented the level of litigation fees, calling them "a shame. . . . I think they are high enough to keep many issues away from resolution and legal advice." In Vancouver, another smaller firm lawyer claimed the price of litigation is costing them business: "It prevents most of my clients from enforcing com- mercial agreements," they wrote. However, in Alberta, a lawyer in a mid-size firm said the profession gets a rough deal from the public when it comes to fees: "It's very fashionable these days for people to talk about them being too high, especially judges who make north of $300,000. . . . I wish people knew what they actually paid their doctor or banker." Hourly rates have also clawed their way back to pre-reces- sion levels, with 10-year calls commanding an average rate of $360 per hour, up 12 per cent over 2014, and just short of the 2009 peak, when they billed an average of $365 per hour across the nation. First-year calls are charged at an average rate of $230, a six-per-cent rise over last year, while at the other end of the experience scale, 20-year calls bring in $411, five per cent more than 2014. Based on feedback, we've once again expanded the survey, to assess the going rate for 45 different matters across nine practice areas: civil litigation, corporate-commercial, criminal, family, immigration, intellectual property, real estate, wills and estates, and new for this year, labour and employment. Results are again divided by region, with 50 per cent of our 277 respondents reporting an office in Ontario, 47 per cent with an office in Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the North), and 10 per cent reporting offices in Quebec or Atlantic Canada. Lawyers from a wide variety of firm sizes took part in the survey, with the bulk, or 65 per cent, in firms of 1 to 4 lawyers. A further 22 per cent came from law firms with between 5 and 25 lawyers, and another 13 per cent from firms with more than 25 lawyers. Fee estimates for individual matters increased in most cat- egories for 2015 over the 2014 responses, with immigration law another area seeing notable rises. Practitioners across A The Going Rate The 2015 Canadian Lawyer Legal Fees survey shows litigation fees have returned to pre-recession rates. By Michael McKiernan The Issue Money

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