SERVICE AGREEMENT BETWEEN:

The individual or legal person described above, which has the right to pursue activities with respect to distributing, advising or selling the financial products and services in Québec (hereinafter referred to as “CLIENT”);

– and –

Le droit chemin inc., a law firm specializing in compliance, investment products and insurance law (hereinafter referred to as “LE DROIT CHEMIN”), having its head office at 2201, Sunset Drive, Mont-Royal, Qc, H3R 2Y5;

Scope of Services

  1. CLIENT enters into a contract with LE DROIT CHEMIN to obtain legal advice or support for its benefits, those of his firm  or of its clients.
  2. The Customer subscribes to the legal firm LE DROIT CHEMIN. He buys a bank of 10, 25 or 40 hours of legal services, which amount is deposited in the trust account of LE DROIT CHEMIN..
  3. Once subscribed, the CLIENT can access the secured client’s secured space of ​​the website, where legal questions in relation with its practice can be asked.
  4. CLIENT must send through the secure space of the website LE DROIT CHEMIN all the relevant information, and document needed to analyze the question.
  5. Once received, LE DROIT CHEMIN sends to the CLIENT a legal opinion, supported with relevant references, if necessary. The legal opinion is published in the client’s secured space of ​​the website LE DROIT CHEMIN within 24 hours of receipt of the question, between 9 am and 5 pm, on business days.
    • Thus, if the question is sent at 9 am on a Monday, it will be answered no later than Tuesday at 9 :30, provided that both days are business days.
    • However, if the question is sent on Wednesday at 6:30 pm, the question will be presumed to have been received by LE DROIT CHEMIN the next day, during business hours (i.e. on Thursday at 9 am.) LE DROIT CHEMIN will have until Friday morning, 9 am, to answer the question (i.e. more than 24 hours after the transmission of the question by the CLIENT).
    • If the matter is sent on a Saturday, Sunday or on a holiday, the matter will be presumed to have been received at 9 am on the next business day.  At that time, 24-hour guarantee period begins to run.
  6. The CLIENT can ask LE DROIT CHEMIN to answer an “emergency” question within a 4-hour time frame, during business hours. The above-mentioned rules set forth in paragraph 5, as to the guarantee of the answer shall apply, with necessary modifications. The hourly rate charged for emergency answers is then increased by 30% and the time bank will decrease accordingly.
  7. The CLIENT is notified via his personal email that an answer to his question was published in the secure space of ​​the client’s account. This notification is evidence of the time the answer was sent to the CLIENT. The CLIENT must connect to its account to read the answer.
  8. If LE DROIT CHEMIN estimates that it will take more than 60 minutes to read the documentation, do research, draft the legal advice or provide an answer by telephone, LE DROIT CHEMIN communicates with the CLIENT as soon as possible during business hours, within 24 hours of the publication of the question on LE DROIT CHEMIN’s website to give an estimate of the time it will take to respond and obtain consent. LE DROIT CHEMIN ends its analysis of the issue and does not transmit an answer to the CLIENT, if the CLIENT does not provide his consent within 24 hours of the publication of the estimate.
  9. Once the answer is given or the services are provided, an invoice is sent to the CLIENT on the website’s secured space. The invoice informs the CLIENT of the amount of time spent in formulating the legal opinion or providing the service, the cost of legal advice, and the time remaining in the time bank or amount in the trust account.
  10. It is understood that LE DROIT CHEMIN makes no representation before the courts.
  11. LE DROIT CHEMIN does not communicate in writing or verbally with customers of its CLIENT. Its services are available only to CLIENTS subscribers who are advisors, representatives, brokers, actuaries, firms or life insurance companies. LE DROIT CHEMIN may nevertheless, on request and after acceptance of the CLIENT, contact lawyers or notaries of its client’s CLIENT to discuss a case.

Costs and Expenses

  1. The CLIENT has the choice of three subscription packages:
    • SILVER CLIENT. 10 hours, hourly rate of $225.
    • GOLD CLIENT. 25 hours, hourly rate $200.
    • PLATINUM CLIENT. 40 hours, hourly rate of $175.
  2. The CLIENT agrees to exhaust his time bank within 365 days of the start date of the subscription.

Communications with the CLIENT

  1. LE DROIT CHEMIN and the CLIENT communicate in writing through the LE DROIT CHEMIN secured website. The question of the CLIENT is transmitted in writing in the secured messaging space, and the response of the legal opinion of LE DROIT CHEMIN is also published in that space. An email is sent to the email address provided by the CLIENT to advise that the response has been made and is in the secured messaging space of his account.
  2. Occasionally, LE DROIT CHEMIN can provide verbal legal opinion by telephone to the CLIENT, but a written answer will follow, along with the according charges.
  3. LE DROIT CHEMIN can also discuss the legal question with a professional (lawyer, notary, actuary) of his client’s CLIENT. The costs will be charged to the CLIENT (not to the client of the CLIENT).
  4. The CLIENT may ask questions following the opinion given by LE DROIT CHEMIN. A response will generally be given the same day, during business hours, but LE DROIT CHEMIN has 24 hours to answer a CLIENT’S question.
  5. The guarantee of 24 hours or 4 hours does not apply in case of Force Majeure or event beyond the control of LE DROIT CHEMIN (e.g. Generalized blackouts, fire or flood, etc.). In that event, LE DROIT CHEMIN will answer the CLIENT’S question as soon as it may be reasonably expected to be done.

End of Services

  1. LE DROIT CHEMIN reserves the right at any time after receiving your subscription request, to accept or to refuse it. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE that the number of clients who can do business with LE DROIT CHEMIN is based on numbers, staff and availability. In case of refusal to provide its services, LE DROIT CHEMIN will reimburse the subscription fees paid by the customer.
  2. LE DROIT CHEMIN may at any time discontinue providing its services to a CLIENT. It may do so in the circumstances described in the lawyers’ Code of Conduct, specifically in cases of conflict of interest. If applicable, the residual amount retained in trust is reimbursed to the CLIENT.
  3. The answers, contracts or other documents sent by the LE DROIT CHEMIN to the CLIENT belong to the CLIENT. However, the CLIENT cannot modify, sell, reproduce of published the answers, contracts or other documents without the permission of LE DROIT CHEMIN. However, the legal advice in its integrity can be sent to the client’s CLIENT, provided that the answer, contrat or other document will not be modified, sell, reproduced, published or diffused by the client’s CLIENT without the authorization of LE DROIT CHEMIN. 
  4. If the CLIENT were to seek access to the contents of its file, fees for the communication of the record’s copy will be charged to the CUSTOMER.
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