Can a family law practitioner make an arrangement to cancel or refund fees based on success?
1. There is seldom 'success' in family court. Good legal strategy is more akin to breaking the fall rather than 'winning'. I often tell my clients no one wins in family court. With proper advice and strategy one can lose less. There is an exception for situations where one person is completely unreasonable (total parenting time denial when not warranted, refusal to pay basic support, reasonable equalization positions...etc.). Outside of this, many situations do not lend themselves to a 'win/loss' model.
Related, who gets to define success? Many clients may feel they were not successful when an objective analysis might say they were. This is because family court isn't really about winning or vindication, but taking one home and splitting it into two... there is almost always the sense of loss in this process.
2. Contingency fees are banned in family law matters (s.28.1(3) of the Solicitors Act). Your proposal could fall into this category.
3. No professional would subscribe to a model with only downside risk. Nor should they. Even if we could define success in family law, then lawyers should get an upside if they succeed if there is a downside when they lose. Taking a greater percentage of the family wealth because the outcome was favorable doesn't seem ethical.
False statements and errors by a lawyer may or may not warrant a fee reduction. More details are required. If a lawyer lied to the court, and it was clear they knew they were lying (and not just accepting their client's narrative), this might be a matter for the law society to review. A lawyer could get their fees reduced by an assessment officer, but only the client can request an assessment.
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