Is a retainer fee paid to a barrister or solicitor a form of gift?
Saskatchewan, Canada
The following excerpt is from Nagel v. Stevenson, 1979 CanLII 2236 (SK CA):
All of the foregoing discussion and judgment has been based upon the principle expressed in Re Solicitor (1910), 22 O.L.R. 30, that a retainer fee given to a barrister or solicitor to induce him to act for the client is a form of gift. I have been unable to find any Canadian case which expresses a contrary view and the recent decision in Robb v. McLaughlin, [1977] 2 All Canada Weekly Summaries 1030, followed that case.
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