Mississauga Business Offers Unique Way to Help Businesses Save on Legal Fees
Published July 11, 2018 at 9:22 pm
Legal assistance, much like car insurance, is something most people hope they’ll never have to rely on. But as anyone with a business (or vehicle) knows, sometimes unforeseen events can crop up and necessitate some professional expertise and assistance–especially when it comes to legal matters.
For that reason, business owners might be relieved to hear that the Mississauga-based KPA Lawyers Professional Corporation boasts a unique Enterprise Solutions program that allows businesses to access to reliable and affordable legal advice and assistance.
“Enterprise Solutions is basically the market’s answer to unreasonably high legal fees,” says Rhyan Ahmed, Barrister & Solicitor (Partner) with KPA.
“Most small business owners just aren’t in a position to pay a corporate lawyer $300 to $600 per hour for legal advice, so they just don’t access legal services at all. As far as we know, we’re the only law firm in Mississauga that provides unlimited business legal services for a low monthly subscription that is comparable to the cost of a cell phone plan.”
While most large and established operations often have no trouble affording legal help, entrepreneurs and start-up companies are more likely to be operating with modest budgets. If a company needs a lawyer to do something simple, such as review a document or simply answer questions, it might not be able to pay over $500 for a brief session.
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“The unaffordability of legal services is no secret. All law firms receive requests to reduce their fees or to delay payment,” says Ahmed.
“We noticed that smaller companies were really interested in accessing legal advice to help grow their business, but they couldn’t afford the legal services necessary to do that. It was kind of like the chicken and the egg scenario. So, rather than focus solely on large and established companies, we decided to create a service that could help smaller companies carve out a path to scaling up and being able to afford more complex legal services in the future.”
As for how it works, companies who sign up for Enterprise Solutions can pay a flat monthly rate to access a range of legal services.
For $99 a month, companies can access the Essentials plan, which will allow them to contact KPA lawyers with any questions and send up to three messages per month to a lawyer.
The $299 a month Professional plan offers everything included in the Essentials package, plus the ability to send unlimited messages to your lawyer, legal opinions regarding contracts and agreements (subscribers can upload up to three documents per month) and 30 minutes of free telephone discussions with your lawyer per month.
The Premium package, which costs $599 a month, offers everything in the Professional plan, but a subscription ensures you will be covered for the cost of legal representation as a Plaintiff or Defendant in small claims court (up to $25,000).
The Premium plan also allows subscribers to receive legal opinions regarding contracts and agreements (you can upload up to 10 documents per month), one additional hour of free telephone discussions with your lawyer per month (total 90 minutes per month) and the ability to send a Demand or Cease & Desist Letter to a third-party (one per month).
Businesses can cancel their subscriptions at any time with no penalty or cancellation fees.
And while some small business owners might not think they’ll need legal help, they should note that you don’t have to be in trouble to require a lawyer’s assisstance.
“There are some universal legal requirements and challenges that virtually any business will face, especially in the early stages of the business,” says Ahmed.
“For example, regardless of whether you’re a solo photographer or a five-person tech startup, you’re going to have to think about questions like how do you register your company’s name, or create a corporation to protect yourself from personal liability.”
Legal assistance remains extremely valuable as a company grows.
“When you become a larger company, and grow to the point of having your own employees, whether it’s a team of five or 50, you’ll want to know a few basics about employment law to prevent wrongful dismissal lawsuits. These are concepts that are universal across almost all industries,” Ahmed says.
And while subscribing will allow businesses to access crucially important expertise, Enterprise Solutions is unique in the sense that it’s a one-of-a-kind initiative that will allow them to do so at a significantly reduced cost.
“At most business law firms, you’ll be lucky if you can get a quick initial consultation for $300, but the same investment will give you a full month of unlimited online communications, reviews of up to three legal documents each month, general business advice, telephone calls and the opportunity to build a long-term relationship with your lawyer,” says Ahmed.
Ahmed says that businesses are showing a lot of interest in the program.
“We knew that businesses would welcome a chance to spend less on their legal bills, but we were surprised to see numerous businesses subscribe within the program’s first week, with little or no advertising.”
Ahmed says KPA lets businesses know about the program when they consult the firm for legal advice and help.
“We typically offer it as an option to small businesses who reach out to us with an existing legal problem, and we let them know that this is a way to not only deal with their immediate short-term challenges, but also secure some long-term peace of mind in knowing that they can turn to their lawyers on a regular basis.”
Now, KPA is working to spread the word so that other companies can access help and save a great deal of money in the process.
“It’s clear to us that there a lot of business owners out there who want to be able to turn to a reliable law firm but simply choose not to use lawyers at all because its unrealistic for their budgets.”
Now, with Enterprise Solutions, that’s changing.
For more info, click here.
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