Frequently Asked Questions

At LMS Lawyers, you will meet lawyers with various talents to meet your specific needs. The practices of all of our lawyers are quite varied, though our lawyers have also developed particular expertise in specific areas. Some of our lawyers are particularly focused on family law issues. Others have had extensive experience in major criminal trials. Others have focused on legal issues relating to juveniles. Immigration and labour law are also two areas that are addressed in the firm. While all of our lawyers have extensive courtroom and negotiation experience, we also are involved in corporate law, wills and estates. If your legal needs concern wills and estates, you will find our approach to be sensitive and helpful. Several of our lawyers have also been sought after for their skills at teaching others.

The essence of any relationship with a lawyer is trust and confidence. For many clients, once they have encountered a lawyer at our firm on one matter, they then choose to continue to retain the legal services of the firm for many years thereafter. You may have heard of LMS Lawyers through family, friends or co-workers, through visiting our website or through responding to our advertisement in the Ottawa Yellow Pages.

To make sure that a LMS Lawyers lawyer is right for you, we do two things. First, we want you to meet us, in person or via e-mail, to discuss your legal concerns and to get to know us. To do this, we don’t charge for the first half hour consultation. Many of our clients have chosen to retain the firm after meeting us for this half hour. If your decision to retain us requires more than a face-to-face meeting, we will provide you with references—clients who are willing to talk to you about what we have done for them.

At LMS Lawyers, we pride ourselves in charging fair fees that involve few, if any surprises to you. For most clients, our relationship is based on periodic cash retainers which are depleted and replenished as a matter progresses. In this way, the client is generally not surprised with a major bill at the end of a case, since most of the fees have been paid during the course of proceedings.

We also accept Legal Aid Ontario funded clients.

What you get for your money is what most clients find to be a positive, ongoing, constructive and informative relationship with a lawyer who is quite accessible. You will find that all of our lawyers are polite, even-tempered and fair. The qualities that you pay for translate into a particular credibility for your case. Others find our lawyers to be particularly reasonable to deal with.

For your money, you are entitled to a reasonable assessment of your case. If your case is doubtful, we will express our opinion accordingly. If you still want to go ahead, that is your prerogative, though we have no interest in wasting your time or your money. For your money, we will seek and follow your instructions, since one of our primary roles is to act on your behalf, not on our behalf. For your money, you will find that your personal circumstances are addressed in a confidential and diplomatic manner. Our approach is considered so appealing that our lawyers are retained or consulted by other lawyers. On the other hand, for your money, you do not get a miracle worker, but instead get a lawyer who is talented and devotes his or her best efforts to your concerns.

One side of the agreement is you agreeing to retain a lawyer at LMS Lawyers and to retain the LMS Lawyers firm as your lawyer. The other side of the agreement is LMS Lawyers agreeing to accept you as a client. While we pride ourselves in being accessible to all, we don’t accept all who want to become our clients. If you are accepted as our client, it is because we believe and expect you to be honest with us about your case. We expect you to provide us with any and all information that is necessary to present your case fairly. We expect you to keep us updated as to changes in your circumstances. We expect you to try to bring your case or your documents to us with enough lead time that we can do our best possible work for you, though we will still try our best if time is tight.

We also expect you to let us know how we are doing. If you have concerns, we expect you to tell us as soon as those concerns arise. Since our relationship with you on a particular matter or during the course of several matters may be a long one and we encourage the continuation of any client relationship it has to be a relationship that is built on mutual trust and confidence.