Overdue Accounts and Collections Policy

Purpose

When an account goes unpaid, the steps we take should be fair, predictable and within the Law Society of Ontario's Paralegal Rules of Conduct. This policy explains what NEO, a licensed paralegal firm, does, and the limits we set for ourselves. It doesn't change your retainer agreement: if the two ever differ, your signed retainer governs.

Due dates and reminders

• Payment is due by the date your retainer agreement sets. Under our current standard terms, accounts and retainer deposits are due on receipt, and a scheduled instalment is due on the date your retainer gives for it. If you signed an earlier retainer with a different due date, your retainer's date applies.
• If an invoice isn't paid on time, our system usually sends a reminder by email and in your client portal shortly after the due date, then about weekly, up to four reminders, stopping once it is paid. Reminders are a courtesy: with or without one, the account is still due.

If you can't pay on time

Tell us as early as you can. We may agree a payment plan, set out in writing with its amounts and dates. If you are facing hardship, we consider your request fairly, but we aren't obliged to reduce an account or give more time. Before any step beyond reminders, we try to reach you to agree a way forward. You can pay any time through the client portal or our Pay page. See also our Payments and Refunds Policy.

Interest

As our Fees, Retainers and Billing Policy says, we charge interest on an overdue account only if your signed retainer provides for it, at the rate it states, from the date it sets, as simple interest (never compounded, and never interest on interest). Under our current standard terms, an amount not paid within 30 days after we deliver the account bears interest at 2% per month, which is 24% per year, calculated daily on the unpaid balance until it is paid, before and after any judgment. Earlier retainers may state a different rate, and that rate applies to them. Every account shows the rate, and any interest charged appears as its own line. Waiving interest once doesn't waive it on other amounts.

Returned payments

If your retainer provides for it, a $50 fee applies to each payment that is returned or reversed, such as a cheque returned for insufficient funds, a failed pre-authorized debit or e-transfer, or a card chargeback that is withdrawn or decided against you. The fee reflects the bank and processor charges and the work a returned payment causes us. We never charge it when the failure was our error or our bank's, and the returned amount is owed again as if it had not been paid.

Costs of collecting

If your retainer provides for it and we have to take steps to collect, you are responsible for the reasonable costs we actually incur, to the extent the law and the court allow: for example court and tribunal filing fees, process-server and enforcement fees, and the costs a court awards. We never add a percentage surcharge or a charge for our time spent chasing payment outside a court proceeding, and a collection agency's commission is never added to what you owe.

If you question an account

• Tell us in writing what you disagree with and why. Under our standard terms, please do so within 10 business days, and we reply within 5 business days.
• Pay the undisputed part when it's due. We take no step to collect the disputed part while we review it, and an automatic reminder sent meanwhile is not a demand for it.
• A disputed amount held in trust stays there until the dispute is resolved.
• If the review finds that an amount is owed, it is payable, with any interest your retainer provides for, from the date your retainer sets.
• Your retainer keeps any right you have to ask a court to review (assess) our account, as the law allows. You can also use our Client Complaints Policy. Card disputes with your bank fall under our Payment Disputes and Chargebacks Policy.

If an account stays unpaid

1. Written notice of the amount owed, the date to pay or make arrangements, and what we may do next.
2. Pausing work. After written notice that gives you at least 10 business days to pay or make arrangements, your retainer lets us pause work that has no hearing, filing or other deadline coming up, subject to our professional duties. We won't do it at a time, or in a way, that would prejudice your matter, and we tell you about every deadline we know of.
3. Withdrawal, if it comes to that, under our Withdrawal of Services Policy and any court or tribunal rules.
4. A final written demand, and then possibly a claim in the appropriate court, within the time the law allows.

These are the steps we usually take. We may not need every step, and a matter's timing or our professional duties may call for them in a different order.

Ending the retainer doesn't cancel fees earned and disbursements incurred up to then, and giving more time, or not acting on a late payment at once, doesn't waive our right to collect. We reserve all our rights to recover what is owed, as the law and the rules allow. We share only what is necessary to collect, as our Confidentiality Policy allows.

What we never do

• Threaten criminal, quasi-criminal or regulatory proceedings to get paid.
• Contact your employer, family or friends about your account, except a person who has agreed to pay it, within what you have allowed us to share (see our Third-Party Payers Policy), or as a court process requires after judgment.
• Hold back your documents to pressure you. Originals are returned as your retainer and our File Closing and Retention Policy set out.
• Add late fees, penalties or charges your retainer doesn't provide for. A court may award costs and interest as the law allows.
• Charge interest and fees that together exceed what the law allows. Our standard rate is well under the federal limit on interest.

Money in trust

Trust money is applied to an invoice only after it has been delivered to you, and as your retainer allows. See our Trust Accounting and Client Money Policy.

Review

This policy is reviewed at least once a year, and whenever the Law Society's By-Laws or rules change. The principal approves every change.

Questions

Email info@neolegalservices.com, call 647-200-3526 or toll-free 888-519-2435, or write to us at Unit 236, 1099 Kingston Road, Pickering, Ontario L1V 1B5.