The Attorney General has filed an amending regulation to O. Reg. 563/20 - Contingency Fee Agreements made under the Solicitors Act.
These changes come into force on January 1, 2022 and are intended to provide clarity and flexibility for lawyers serving clients with contingency fee agreements.
The amendments include the OBA’s recommendation to provide a full exemption from the regulation’s requirements for service to sophisticated business clients defined under s. 7(3), for whom the existing requirements cannot be operationalized, add costs, and provide no measure of consumer protection.
Subject to other limited exceptions, the amendments require the use of a revised Standard Form Contingency Fee Agreement, which is available on the Law Society of Ontario website. The Law Society is in the process of updating its contingency fee resources to reflect the amendments and the revised Standard Form Contingency Fee Agreement.
For full details, please see O. Reg. 836/21.