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Merrow Halstead LLP · Unionville, Markham

Unionville, Markham · Ontario law

Most of a matter is waiting. You should always know who you are waiting on.

Almost nobody leaves a law firm because the law was wrong. They leave because for six weeks nothing was said. So we built the answer into the front of the practice: pick what is actually happening to you and we will show you the whole route — every step, who holds the file at each one, what it costs, and what we will need from you.

Open now Closes at 5:30 PM today

Map your matter Book a consultation
  • Legal services provided by lawyers licensed by the Law Society of Ontario, and by a licensed paralegal in the tribunals where a paralegal may act. We practise Ontario law only.
  • Nothing on this site is legal advice, and using it does not create a solicitor-client relationship.
A stack of closed buff file folders tied with a faded rose ribbon on a walnut meeting table, beside a glass of water and an empty chair

A file only moves when somebody moves it. The whole of this page is about making it obvious, at any moment, who that somebody is.

Four parties can be holding your file at any moment. This colour key runs through the whole site, and through the client app.

Map your matter

Tell us what is happening. We will show you the whole road.

Every date below is counted in real Ontario business days from today, with weekends and statutory holidays taken out. Change an answer and the route redraws: steps appear, the court changes, the way you pay changes with it.

What is happening to you?

Your matter

Residential purchase · Real estate

Change anything and the route redraws

This form needs JavaScript. The rest of the page — fees, practice areas, people, the office — is here without it.

The route

10 steps

  1. Send us the firm agreement

    You

    The moment your agreement of purchase and sale goes firm, we need it. Every date after this one is set by that document, not by us.

Real estate

Residential purchase

Land Registry Office (Teraview e-registration), York Region

Every figure here is generated from the answers you gave, for a fictional firm. It is an illustration of how a matter is structured and priced — not a quote, not advice about your situation, and not a promise of any outcome.

Where the time actually goes

The file is usually not on our desk.

LAWPRO, the insurer that covers every practising lawyer in Ontario, reports that in almost every area of practice the leading cause of claims is a breakdown in lawyer-client communication — not lawyers getting the law wrong, which accounts for roughly one claim in eight. Silence is the risk. So here is the silence, drawn out.

    A fountain pen resting on a closed buff folder tied with a rose ribbon, on a dark walnut desk

    What it costs

    Three ways to pay, and the arithmetic behind each one.

    A price with an asterisk is not a price. Everything below states whether disbursements, third-party charges and taxes come on top, because the Law Society requires an advertised fee to say so.

    By the hour

    Docketed in tenths, billed monthly

    Time is recorded in units of one tenth of an hour — six minutes — against a retainer we hold for you in the firm's mixed trust account. That money stays yours until an account is rendered against it.

    • Partner$460 / hr
    • Associate$310 / hr
    • Licensed paralegal$185 / hr
    • Law clerk$135 / hr
    • Articling student$95 / hr

    HST at 13% and disbursements are payable in addition. Every account itemises fees and disbursements separately, with the narrative for each docket entry.

    Flat fee

    Quoted in writing before we start

    Defined pieces of work with a defined price. It does not change because the file took us longer than we expected — that is our risk to carry, not yours.

    • Residential purchasefrom $1,450
    • Residential salefrom $1,250
    • Will$650
    • Wills for a couple$1,050
    • Powers of attorney, pair$300
    • Termination review and written opinion$650
    • Demand letter$450
    • Estate trustee certificate applicationfrom $2,400

    HST is payable in addition. For a residential real estate transaction the Law Society requires an advertised price to be all-inclusive, so ours covers our fee, title insurance, the searches, the transaction levy and our office charges. Only HST, land transfer tax, government registration fees, Teranet charges and a condominium status certificate are charged on top.

    Contingency

    Our fee comes out of what is recovered

    Available for some civil and employment claims. Not available in family matters or criminal matters — Ontario prohibits contingency fees there, whatever anyone offers you.

    • Our maximum contingency fee33⅓%
    • If nothing is recoveredNo fee
    • DisbursementsStill payable
    • HST on the feePayable

    No legal fee is payable if you recover nothing, but disbursements, third-party charges and HST are payable in addition and are generally payable whether or not the claim succeeds. If you are unsuccessful a court may order you to pay costs to the other party; a contingency fee agreement does not protect you from that. Any agreement is in the standard form Ontario requires, and we give you the Law Society's consumer guide to contingency fees with time to read it before anything is signed.

    The smallest unit of a legal bill

    Six minutes.

    Clients are rarely shown how an hourly account is actually built. It is built out of tenths: a call is docketed at 0.3, an email at 0.1, a motion record at 4.5. Move the two controls and watch a line of a real account assemble itself.

    Who does it
    What it is

    One docket entry

    $93.00

    Disbursements

    Money we spend on your behalf

    A disbursement is not our fee. It is money the firm lays out for you and passes through at cost: a court filing fee, a registration charge, a process server, a search, a courier.

    • Taxable disbursementsHST applies
    • Court and government feesUsually no HST
    • Land transfer taxNo HST

    Where we incur an expense strictly as your agent — a court filing fee, land transfer tax — it is passed through without HST. Where the firm buys something in its own name and recharges it, HST applies. Every account separates the two, because the Law Society requires disbursements to be itemised.

    Money held in trust

    Your retainer is still your money

    A retainer sits in the firm's mixed trust account at a Canadian chartered bank, separate from anything the firm owns. It is drawn down only against an account we have rendered to you.

    • Trust account rulesLSO By-Law 9
    • Interest on the mixed accountLaw Foundation of Ontario
    • Statement of your trust ledgerWith every account

    When the balance runs low we ask you to replenish it before the next stage, and we say so in advance rather than after the fact. The client app shows the trust ledger moving in real time.

    What we will not do

    Things a fee page should say out loud

    There are no results on this website, no client testimonials, no star ratings and no badges. That is deliberate.

    • Guaranteed outcomesNever
    • "Best" or "top" claimsNever
    • Fees that appear after you signNever

    Ontario's marketing rules require anything a firm claims to be demonstrably true, accurate and verifiable, and they restrict testimonials, superlatives and the advertising of past results. A page with none of it is not a page with nothing to say.

    What we do

    A general practice, and an honest list of its edges.

    Six areas. We do not take criminal work, immigration work, personal injury or intellectual property, and we would rather tell you that on the first call than three weeks in.

    Residential real estate

    Purchases, sales and refinancings across York Region and the GTA, on an all-inclusive price.

    • Title and off-title searches
    • Condominium status certificate review
    • Mortgage and refinancing instructions
    • Transfers between family members
    Flat fee

    Wills, powers of attorney and estates

    Planning while you can, and administration when someone else has to.

    • Wills, including trusts for minor children
    • Powers of attorney for property and personal care
    • Certificates of appointment of estate trustee
    • Estate accounting and distribution
    Flat, then hourly

    Employment

    Mostly for employees, occasionally for small employers, never for both sides of the same dispute.

    • Termination and severance review
    • Employment agreement review before you sign
    • Wrongful dismissal claims
    • Workplace policies for small employers
    Flat, then hourly

    Civil litigation and debt recovery

    Contract and debt disputes in Small Claims Court and the Superior Court of Justice.

    • Demand letters and negotiated settlements
    • Small Claims Court, up to $50,000
    • Simplified Procedure claims to $200,000
    • Enforcing a judgment you already have
    Flat demand, then hourly

    Family

    Separation, parenting and property, with a strong preference for settling it out of a courtroom.

    • Separation agreements
    • Parenting plans and child support
    • Equalization of net family property
    • Independent legal advice on an agreement
    Hourly, or flat if agreed

    Business and commercial

    The paperwork a small Ontario business actually needs, without a corporate department's overheads.

    • Incorporation and shareholder agreements
    • Commercial leases, on either side
    • Buying or selling a small business
    • Supplier and contractor agreements
    Flat or hourly Book a consultation

    The people

    Five people, one floor, and no mystery about who has your file.

    Merrow Halstead LLP is a partnership of two lawyers with one associate, one licensed paralegal and one law clerk, working from a single office in Unionville. There is no other branch.

    Partner · Lawyer

    Dana Merrow

    Real estate and estates. Runs the residential files and the estate applications, and wrote the all-inclusive pricing the firm uses.

    Called to the bar
    Ontario, 2007
    Practice
    Residential real estate, wills, estates
    Languages
    English, French

    Partner · Lawyer

    Adaeze Halstead

    Employment and civil litigation. Has appeared before the Superior Court of Justice and the Divisional Court, and does most of the firm's negotiating.

    Called to the bar
    Ontario, 2011
    Practice
    Employment, civil litigation
    Languages
    English, Igbo

    Associate · Lawyer

    Tomás Villanueva

    Family and civil litigation. Carries the separation agreements and the Simplified Procedure files, and does the disclosure work most clients dread.

    Called to the bar
    Ontario, 2020
    Practice
    Family, civil litigation
    Languages
    English, Spanish

    Licensed paralegal

    Wing-Sum Lau

    Small Claims Court, the Landlord and Tenant Board and provincial offences — the forums where an Ontario paralegal is licensed to appear, often at a lower cost than a lawyer.

    Licensed
    Paralegal (P1), Ontario, 2016
    Appears in
    Small Claims, LTB, POA matters
    Languages
    English, Cantonese, Mandarin

    Law clerk

    Marisol Reyes

    Real estate and estates clerk, and the person most clients speak to most often. A law clerk works under a lawyer's supervision and does not give legal advice.

    With the firm
    Since 2018
    Handles
    Searches, registrations, closing files
    Languages
    English, Spanish, Tagalog

    Two things we are required to be clear about, and are glad to be. Nobody at this firm is a Certified Specialist. The Law Society of Ontario reserves that title, and the word "specialist", for lawyers it has certified through its own programme, so we do not use it and neither should any firm that has not earned it. And where a matter is outside our six areas we will refer you elsewhere; if we receive a referral fee from the firm we send you to, it is paid out of that firm's fees within the limits the Law Society sets, it does not increase your cost or reduce your recovery, and we will tell you before the referral is made.

    The first conversation

    Half an hour, and a straight answer about whether you need us.

    The first consultation is thirty minutes and there is no charge for it. Its purpose is to work out whether you have a matter, whether we are the right firm for it, and what it would cost — not to sign you up.

    • A conflict search runs before a lawyer reads anything about your situation. That is why we ask who is on the other side.
    • You leave with a fee basis in writing, or with the name of a firm better suited to the matter.
    • Nothing is a retainer until both of us have signed one. Until then we are not your lawyers.
    • Contacting us does not stop a limitation period from running. If your matter is time-sensitive, say so on the call.

    Request a consultation

    Next available

    Available times are generated from your device clock and need JavaScript. Please call the office instead.

    Please do not send confidential details through this form. Until a conflict search is complete and a retainer is signed by both of us we are not your lawyers, no solicitor-client relationship exists, and what you send may not be treated as confidential. A name and a one-line description is all we need to get started.

    This is a demonstration of a fictional firm. Submitting the form does nothing except draw a summary on this page. No appointment is made, nothing is sent anywhere, and no charge is taken.

    The office

    One floor on Main Street, and free parking behind it.

    A ground-floor office with a step-free entrance, a meeting room that takes six, and a kettle that works. Signing appointments are booked rather than dropped in, because a signing needs a witness who is not already in another room.

    A small waiting area with two wooden armchairs, a jug of eucalyptus on a side table and a tall storefront window looking onto a snowy main street

    Right now

    Open

    Closes at 5:30 PM today

    Checked against your device clock, with Ontario statutory holidays taken out.

    Hours

    Office hours by day
    Monday8:30 AM – 5:30 PM
    Tuesday8:30 AM – 5:30 PM
    Wednesday8:30 AM – 5:30 PM
    Thursday8:30 AM – 5:30 PM
    Friday8:30 AM – 4:00 PM
    SaturdayClosed
    SundayClosed

    Closed on Ontario statutory holidays. Closings are not scheduled on the Friday before a long weekend.

    Getting in

    • Step-free entrance from the rear car park
    • Free parking behind the building, six spaces
    • Accessible washroom on the ground floor
    • Meetings in Cantonese, Mandarin, Spanish, French and Igbo can be arranged with notice
    • Documents can be read to you, and we will slow down