Menu
Independent Legal Advice
Choose Angrove Law as your independent legal advice for a friendly, personable lawyer to walk you through your contract or agreement. We take a collaborative approach to helping you understand your legal position. Book a free call to determine whether Angrove Law is right for you.
A simple and affordable process that keeps you in control.
Independent Legal Advice Pricing:
$220 / hour
BASIC EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS
Est. 3 hours
Contractor agreements or service contracts
Est. 5 hours
Cohabitation agreements
Est. 4 - 5 hours
Marriage Contract
Est. 6 - 8 hours
Lease
Est. 1 - 2 hours
The above hours are estimates.
The amount of hours incurred will depend on the complexity of the agreement, the number of questions you have, and the collaborative nature (or not!) of the drafting lawyer and the other party.
Steps to working with Angrove Law
- Book a consultation meeting today! Meeting will take 15 minutes or less.
- Review and sign the Angrove Law legal services agreement and provide us with contact information of the drafting lawyer.
- Wait while we reach out to the other lawyer to receive documents for review.
- Angrove Law reviews the documents to make sure they are clear and provide you with comments.
- 1 hour meeting (in-person, virtual, or by phone) with you to explain the agreement and discuss your rights.
- Angrove Law will send the drafting lawyer YOUR comments and changes based on our conversation.
- The last step? Depends on your agreement! Generally, we will sign a certificate of independent legal advice for you to include with your agreement. This will make sure it is not challenged for unfairness in the courts.
types of agreements angrove law provides legal guidance for
- Cohabitation Agreements
- Marriage Contracts
- Employment Agreements
- Contractor or Freelance Agreements
- Service Contracts
- Leases
- And more!
Some items you may consider before our first meeting
- Are there any words or phrases that you do not understand?
- Does the agreement refer to any legislation or regulations that you are not aware of?
- Does the agreement reflect the entire context of your relationship - whatever the case employment, business, romantic, or otherwise!
- Do you understand all of the documents disclosed to create this agreement?
- Are there any questions you have not received a clear answer on from the drafting lawyer?
Common Questions with independent legal advice
Independent legal advice is when you get advice from a lawyer who isn’t involved with the other people who are party to an agreement and did not draft the agreement. This happens before you sign the agreement. The lawyer giving this advice reviews the agreement and other documents then goes over it with you. Again, this is not the lawyer who made the agreement. By getting separate legal counsel, you are protecting this agreement from being challenged in the future as unfair. This is done to make sure you really understand what will happen when you sign the agreement and other papers. And to let the courts know in the future that you weren’t being made to sign the papers because of bad reasons like force, threats, or not having equal power in the situation.
There are some types of agreements that require parties have separate legal consultation. This requirement will be stipulated in the guiding legislation. A good example is a separation agreement, where the Divorce Act or the provincial family law act asks that all parties get their own lawyers to review the contract so that the agreement is fair and everyone knows their rights.
This is not always the case. For example, in many provinces you can sign a waiver of independent legal advice for a cohabitation agreement. And, employment law generally doesn’t require that you get your own lawyer – for large contracts it would still be smart!
In your consultation call with Angrove Law, we will give you your options on the type and amount of legal assistance you need for your situation.
A separate lawyer who isn’t involved with the other people in a legal agreement can provide you with this type of legal service. This lawyer is chosen by you. This lawyer did not draft the agreement. This lawyer is knowledgeable of the area of law of the agreement.
The cost of independent legal advice can be anywhere from $450 or more. The price varies depending on the complexity of the agreement, whether the parties already are agreement, the power imbalances, the legal knowledge,
Hilary and her family spend their year travelling between Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Alberta where they own property. As a result of the national mobility agreement, Hilary can practice law in each of the provinces. When she is not physically in a place she can offer her services completely online through video calls, phone, and email.
A certificate of independent legal advice is a paper signed by a lawyer who did not draft the contract, confirming they’ve given fair legal guidance to you about signing the contract. This helps show the person understood what they were doing without any outside pressure. It’s to prove that both parties made their choices with proper advice.
Help understanding standard sections included in agreements
Recitals
Definitions
Governing Law
Recitals
At Angrove Law, we call this section Background.
Background should be at the start of your agreement. The information in Background (Recitals) is used by a court when interpreting the terms of a contract to provide information about the basic background and specific matters in consideration at the time the contract was written.
This section is very important to understand the different bargaining powers and reason for the agreement. Hindsight is 20/20 and you don’t want to get caught relying on he said she said if the agreement was ever to be contested!
Definitions
In a legal agreement, the “definition” section is where we tell you exactly what certain words and phrases mean. This makes sure everyone understands the same thing, so there’s no confusion. This helps avoid conflict over semantics. And, at Angrove Law, keeping you out of the court room forever is our goal.
Governing Law
The majority of laws for agreements in Canada are provincially governed. This section states which laws prevail over this contract and where a dispute would be resolved if it were to come up.
The governing law clause usually looks like this:
“This Agreement shall be exclusively governed by, and construed in accordance with, the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable therein.”
At Angrove Law we help make contracts understandable. Instead, we would write:
“This Agreement is governed by the laws of Ontario.”
When we act as your independent solicitor, we’ll make sure you’re aware of the laws that may impact you and that the choice of governing law is fair to you.
Hear Why Others Are Using Angrove LAw
★★★★★ 5/5
★★★★★ 5/5