This form is written for a divorce case but may be reworded as appropriate for any other family law situation. If the client has already signed an employment agreement, the client should be advised to obtain independent counsel before signing this additional agreement.
Collaborative Law Retainer Letter to Client
[Date]
[Name and address of client]
Re: Retainer agreement
[Salutation]
You have retained our firm to advise you in connection with your collaborative law process. In a collaborative law process, each spouse has an attorney, and all have a shared commitment to avoid litigation. The process primarily entails informal discussions and conferences for purposes of settling all issues. Each party and his or her attorney agree to adhere to honesty and mutual respect for the process.
You have requested representation in the collaborative law process after you were provided with information about the material benefits and risks of the collaborative law process as compared to the material benefits and risks of other reasonably available alternatives for resolving your family law matter, including litigation, mediation, and arbitration.
Scope and Duties
If your spouse agrees to proceed in a collaborative law process, I will represent your interests through the final settlement and filing of a judgment of dissolution, subject to the following:
1.I will serve as your attorney solely for the purposes of filing the petition or answer, notice of collaborative process, status reports, and final divorce papers.
2.I will not represent you in litigation except to the extent that the parties agree to submit selected issues to a private judge or arbitrator. My representation is terminated by any party’s decision to litigate, whether it was your decision or not.
3.Neither I nor any attorney in the law firm with which I am associated will represent you in any family law litigation against your present spouse now or in the future, except for the limited purpose of obtaining or defending an emergency order to protect your health, safety, welfare, or interest or that of a member of your family.
4.If this collaborative law process does not result in settlement, I will cooperate with you in transferring your file to new counsel.
5.I will keep you reasonably informed of the settlement process and will not agree to a settlement of any issue without your consent. I will promptly respond to your inquiries.
You acknowledge and agree that, for as long as you participate in the collaborative law process, you are giving up your right to have your own experts, your right of access to the court system, and your right to formally object to producing any documents or to providing any information to the other side that I determine is appropriate.
To this end, you agree to make full disclosure of the nature, extent, and value of your income, assets, and liabilities. You also agree to provide me with any changes or developments affecting these disclosures. You authorize me to fully disclose all information that in my discretion must be provided to your spouse and your spouse’s attorney.
You and I both have the right to withdraw from this contract, if either of us feels we cannot abide by the principles of collaborative law, by notifying the other in writing. I agree to give you fifteen days’ notice of my intention to withdraw.
[Include if applicable: If your spouse declines to proceed in a collaborative law process, this retainer agreement will be void, and you and I will need to enter into a new retainer agreement for conventional divorce representation before our firm can proceed to represent you. In that event, I advise you to retain independent counsel to review any new agreement.]
Financial Provisions
It is understood that our firm uses a team approach involving partners, associates, and legal assistants, if appropriate, when their participation will in our judgment facilitate the highest-quality and most efficient and cost-effective representation of our clients. We reserve the right to, and you agree that we may, bring in outside counsel to assist in your case if in our judgment it is appropriate to do so.
For our services, you agree to pay for time devoted to your case at the following rates:
[Name of attorney] [number] dollars ($[amount]) per hour
[Name of associate] [number] dollars ($[amount]) per hour
[Name of paralegal] [number] dollars ($[amount]) per hour
These rates are subject to adjustment. In signing this letter you agree that, after written notification is sent to you of a fee adjustment, you will be responsible for payment at the adjusted rate. We are not able to quote a fixed attorney’s fee or to predict what your total fee will be, because each case is unique, and it is impossible to predict just how much work will be involved.
In addition, you will be charged for expenses, including filing fees, photocopies, messengers, travel, parking, and telephone charges out of our local area. Also, it may be necessary to retain the services of an accountant, appraiser, actuary, or other expert to value certain assets. If we deem it advisable to retain an expert, we will recommend an expert and will obtain full consent of both parties and attorneys before engaging the expert’s services. Payment for your share of the expert’s services is your sole liability. You will be required to pay each expert directly.
[Include if applicable: The amount you will be charged for preparation of documents may be calculated on a basis other than an hourly fee. In other words, chargeable time does not always equal actual time.] Attorney time is normally billed in [tenths/[specify]] of an hour; the minimum unit charge for attorney time is [0.10/[specify]] hours ([6/[specify]] minutes). You will be billed for all time that we spend associated with your case, including telephone time, travel time, file review, and the other tasks involved in preparing your case.
In certain instances, one party agrees to pay some of the other party’s attorney’s fees and costs. If appropriate, we will seek such agreements on your behalf. However, the obligation to pay fees and costs to us remains your own, regardless of any such agreements.
Before proceeding, we require an initial trust account deposit of [number] dollars ($[amount]). You will be billed for amounts drawn against your account on a [monthly/bimonthly/regular] basis and are responsible for paying the bill within [number] days of receiving it. If you have any questions or objections to a bill, you agree to notify us in writing immediately on receiving it. After we complete our services to you in this matter and after all costs, expenses, and fees for services have been drawn against your account, I agree to refund you any retainer balance remaining. If your balance at that time is insufficient to cover the remaining unpaid costs, expenses, and services, you will be responsible for, and you agree to pay, the remaining amounts within thirty days of receiving your final bill. If payment has not been made thirty days after you received your final bill, you agree to pay interest on this unpaid balance at the rate of [percent] percent per year.
If the retainer is not replenished promptly as agreed above or any bill is not paid within thirty days, it is understood that no further work will be done until payment is received or other satisfactory arrangements are made and confirmed in writing. In the alternative, we reserve the right to withdraw as your attorney; you agree in signing this letter to sign promptly, on our request, all documents necessary for us to withdraw.
Please note that, because of necessary processing delays, the statement date shown on your monthly bill is ordinarily up to a week later than the actual date of services recorded on the statement. Since your subsequent monthly bill may include services that were actually rendered during the prior billing period, you should not assume that a statement contains all charges incurred up to the statement date.
In signing this letter, you agree that we will have a judgment lien against any sums you may receive in this action, to pay any unpaid balance of your attorney’s fees and costs remaining in this action at the time of settlement. You further agree that we may record this agreement in any county in which you own real property if you fail to pay all sums owing to this office and that the recording of this agreement will constitute a lien against that real property. You further agree that, regardless of whether this agreement is recorded or not, all unpaid fees and costs owing to this office will be paid from the escrow on the sale of any real property owned in whole or in part by you.
If for any reason we are compelled to commence collection efforts on any outstanding bill, then, in addition to the above, you agree to pay us actual attorney’s fees and costs incurred (whether our own time or that of other attorneys employed) in connection with that collection effort.
We make every effort at this point to acquaint you with our firm’s philosophy and procedures and with the parameters within which we are able to assist you. If your needs and expectations change and become incompatible with our views regarding the conduct of your case, or if a substantial disagreement arises between us, we reserve the right to withdraw from your employment. If that occurs, we will provide you with notice so that you may have the opportunity to employ other counsel; again, you agree in signing this letter to sign promptly, on our request, all documents required to permit us to withdraw as your attorney.
Please read this letter carefully. If you agree with its terms, please sign the enclosed copy and return it to me. This agreement is a legally binding contract between us, which you are free to have reviewed by another attorney before signing. We encourage you to do that if you have any uncertainty about entering into any part of this agreement with us. If you have any comments or questions concerning this letter of agreement, please contact me at your convenience. It is very important that we have a clear understanding about fees and costs, because we want to devote our efforts and attention to the substance of your case and to avoid any possible future misunderstanding about our financial arrangements with you.
Sincerely yours,
[Name of law firm]
By:
[Name of attorney]
Enc.: Copy of retainer agreement
I understand and agree to the terms of the foregoing letter.
Dated:____________________________
[Name of client]