Civil litigation
Anything from a demand letter or a tribunal matter — Residential Tenancy Branch, for example — to disputes in Provincial Court, Supreme Court, or the Court of Appeal. Pragmatic, costed up front where possible, never running the meter without a plan.
What we handle
Civil litigation runs from the smallest matters — a demand letter, a tribunal hearing — to disputes that go all the way through Supreme Court and beyond. Below is what we cover. We do not take family law, criminal, immigration, or personal injury work; for those, we'll point you to a lawyer who does.
A well-drafted demand letter resolves more disputes than people expect. The right letter, sent at the right time, often prevents a court file from opening at all.
Disputes before the Residential Tenancy Branch, the Civil Resolution Tribunal, and other administrative bodies. Smaller in scope than court, but still adversarial and still on the record.
Claims up to $35,000 in BC. We act for plaintiffs and defendants. Faster and cheaper than Supreme Court — but not cheap, and not always the right venue.
Civil claims in BC Provincial Court and the Supreme Court of BC. Real estate disputes, contract disputes, and shareholder disputes are the common ones for us.
Appeals from Supreme Court decisions. We take these on selectively, with a clear view of the appellate record before we agree.
A Certificate of Pending Litigation freezes title to a property until the dispute resolves. Filing one wrongly is expensive; defending one badly is worse. We do both.
How we structure fees
Hourly for most files — with a written estimate for each phase of the matter, monthly billing against that estimate, and an updated estimate when something changes. You always know what the next phase will cost before we start it.
Fixed fee for short matters — a single demand letter, a Small Claims Court appearance, a tribunal hearing, a one-day mediation. Quoted on the file before we start.
We generally do not work on contingency. On rare, narrow files we may consider it, but we don't do the work — personal injury, family law, criminal — that contingency typically applies to.
Frequently asked
Earlier than you think. Once a lawsuit is filed, the cost and the leverage profile both change quickly. The cheapest dispute to resolve is usually the one resolved before a Notice of Civil Claim is served — often through a single well-drafted demand letter. By the time pleadings are exchanged, settlement gets meaningfully more expensive.
Generally, no — we don't work on contingency. On very narrow files, we may consider it. Note also that we don't do personal injury, family law, or criminal work, so the typical contingency cases most firms run are not ones we take.
A Certificate of Pending Litigation (CPL) is a registration on title to real property that warns anyone dealing with the property that there is an ongoing court case affecting it. It freezes the property until the case resolves or the CPL is cancelled. To file one validly, you need a court action that asserts an interest in the land itself — not just a money claim against the owner.
Small Claims Court matters typically resolve in 6 to 12 months from filing to trial. Supreme Court matters routinely take 18 to 36 months. Most cases settle before trial — often at mediation, sometimes on the courthouse steps.
For most files, hourly — we estimate a budget for each phase (pleadings, discovery, mediation, trial), bill against it monthly, and update the estimate when something changes. For demand letters and short matters, a fixed fee. We do not run the meter without a plan.
Send us the short version of what's happened. We'll come back with the next two or three concrete steps and a fee estimate.