A 15-per-cent cap on contingency fees could harm accident victims by driving plaintiffs’ lawyers out of the business, says Ottawa personal injury lawyer Victoria Boddy.
Earlier this year, Toronto MPP Mike Colle introduced a private member’s bill, the Personal Injury and Accident Victims Protection Act, that, if passed, would enact amendments to Ontario’s Solicitors Act and its Law Society Act to limit lawyers’ fees to 15 per cent of the total settlement received by their personal injury clients. The bill, which passed first reading in the provincial legislature, would also ban referral fees paid between lawyers for files.