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206 lines
8.8 KiB
Markdown
206 lines
8.8 KiB
Markdown
# 07 — Fee research and recommended rate card
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Authority: `AGENTS.md` §3 D8 (publish a full rate card) and **D14 — a single
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published rate card, confirmed by Pouya 2026-08-26 (Q4/Q14/Q15-Q17 answered).**
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**The card below is confirmed and buildable.** The research that produced it is
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retained for context, but the figures are decisions now, not recommendations —
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see "Set by Pouya" below. This is business pricing information, not legal or
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financial advice.
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Research date: 2026-08-26. All figures below are **plus HST** unless stated.
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---
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## The Ontario market, measured
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### The regulated floor
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Ontario's mandatory mediation tariff (Rule 24.1) sets the roster rate. ADR
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Chambers publishes it as **$600 to $825 depending on the number of parties**,
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covering *"one half hour of preparation time per party and up to three hours of
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mediation."*
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This is the floor of the market, and it is a floor with a signal attached:
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pricing at or near it reads as roster-filler work.
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### Published hourly bands
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ADR Chambers, across its full roster:
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| | Range |
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|---|---|
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| Mediators | **$150 – $750 / hour** *"depending on the experience of the mediator"* |
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| Arbitrators | **$250 – $800 / hour** |
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Plus, on the arbitration side: an **$800 filing fee**, a **$800 venue fee** for a
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hearing room and one breakout room, and **$400** per additional room.
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### Published practitioner rate cards
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Four Ontario practitioners publishing real numbers:
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| Practice | Half-day | Full day | Overtime | Notes |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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| **Patey** — Tier 1, PI / insurance | $800 (3 h) | $1,200 (6 h) | $250 / h | Multi-party 3 h $1,200; multi-party full day $2,400; pro forma to 1.5 h $500 |
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| **Patey** — Tier 2, estate / employment / civil | $1,200 (3 h) | $2,400 (6 h) | $375 / h | Pre-mediation caucus $175 flat |
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| **Zuber** — video | $1,800 (3 h) | $2,800 (6 h) | $500 / h | +$500 per additional party |
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| **Zuber** — in person, GTA | — | $4,000 (6 h) | $500 / h | Eastern Ontario $3,500. Prep and travel included |
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| **Carroll** — Ottawa | $1,750 (incl. 1.5 h prep) | $3,000 (incl. 2 h prep) | $400 / h | Arbitration day rate $3,000 |
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### What the shape of that data says
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Three observations that drive the recommendation.
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1. **The market is already segmented by matter type, not only by seniority.**
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Patey runs two published tiers off the same neutral. Insurance and PI work
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clears around $800–$1,200 a day; estate, employment, and civil work clears
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$2,400 for the same hours. This is the single most useful structural fact in
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the research.
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2. **Prep time is a pricing lever, disclosed differently by everyone.** Carroll
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bundles named hours (1.5 h and 2 h). Zuber bundles prep *and* travel. Patey
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bundles neither and sells a caucus separately. Bundling explicitly reads as
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more confident and removes an argument later.
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3. **Additional parties are always priced, never absorbed.** $300–$500 per party
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beyond two is the norm, and a four-party construction mediation is materially
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more work than a two-party one.
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---
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## Where this practice should sit
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**Not at the floor.** Pouya's stack — JD, an operating role inside a litigation
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and ADR boutique, Q.Med held, Q.Arb commenced, and a working engineering career —
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is not a junior generalist profile. Entering at roster rates would anchor him
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into SABS volume work and make the commercial rate very hard to raise later.
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Published rates are close to unrecoverable once set: raising them looks
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opportunistic, discounting privately never becomes public knowledge.
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**Not at the top either.** $4,000-a-day in-person GTA rates belong to neutrals
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with twenty years of name recognition. Asking that without an independent track
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record invites a comparison he loses.
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**The position is the upper-middle: at or just above Patey Tier 2, just below
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Zuber and Carroll.** That reads as *credentialed and serious, priced to be taken
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seriously, not yet a marquee name* — which is exactly true.
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---
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## The confirmed rate card
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**Set by Pouya on 2026-08-26 (D14). This is the card. Build `/fees/` from it.**
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He declined the two-tier structure and set one rate for all mediation matters.
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All figures **plus HST**.
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### Mediation — all matters, one rate
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| Item | Fee |
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|---|---|
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| Half day — up to 3.5 h, including 2 h preparation | **$2,000** |
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| Full day — up to 7 h, including 3 h preparation | **$4,000** |
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| Each party beyond two | **$500** |
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| Overtime, per hour | **$500** |
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### Arbitration
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Available now as co-arbitrator; sole appointments follow the Q.Arb designation
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— **the co-arbitrator half is `AGENTS.md` Q36 and is not in §4.** Do not publish
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it on `/fees/` until Q36 closes,
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commenced August 2026. The page must say so — see `03-content-spec.md`.
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| Item | Fee |
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| Hourly | **$500** |
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| Hearing day | **$4,000** |
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| Documents-only / expedited, flat — simple | **$6,500** |
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| Documents-only / expedited, flat — complex | **$9,500** |
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**No tribunal-secretary rate.** Removed by Pouya. Do not reinstate it, and do not
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offer tribunal-secretary work on the site.
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### Other services — hourly
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Early neutral evaluation, settlement counsel, dispute-system design, and
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pre-dispute technical advisory: **$500 / hour**.
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### Cancellation — adopted as recommended
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| When | Fee |
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|---|---|
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| More than 30 days before | No fee. Disbursements only |
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| 15 – 30 days before | 50% of the booked fee |
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| Fewer than 15 days before | 100% of the booked fee |
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| Rescheduled with a new date fixed at the same time | No charge |
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| Reserved time filled by another matter of equal or greater value | Waived |
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### Terms to state on the page
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- All fees plus HST.
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- Shared equally between the parties unless they agree otherwise in writing.
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- Payable on rendering; interest on overdue accounts at 5% per annum.
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- **Video and in-person at the same rate.** Do not discount remote sessions —
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the preparation is identical, and discounting teaches the market that the
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session is the product.
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- Travel outside the GTA billed separately or bundled at a stated day rate.
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### All parameters confirmed
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Q15, Q16, and Q17 were closed on 2026-08-26. **Preparation time is bundled and
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must be stated on the page** — "including 2 hours of preparation", "including
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3 hours of preparation". Do not quietly fold it into the hours figure. At these
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rates, saying preparation is included is the selling point, not a footnote.
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---
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## Recorded dissent — for the 12-month review (R5)
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Claude recommended a two-tier card; Pouya set a single rate. The reasoning is
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recorded here so the 12-month review has something to test against, not to
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re-open a settled decision.
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**Where the single rate lands relative to the measured market:**
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| Segment | Published market, full day | This card |
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| Insurance / SABS / LAT | ~$1,200 – $2,400 | **$4,000** |
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| Commercial / civil / estate | ~$2,400 – $3,000 | **$4,000** |
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| Established GTA in person | ~$3,500 – $4,000 | **$4,000** |
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$4,000 is at the ceiling of the published Ontario market — level with Zuber's
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in-person GTA rate, and roughly **three times** the going rate for the insurance
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and SABS segment.
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**The consequence worth watching.** The strategy brief (§IV.7) identifies
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accident-benefits and LAT mediation as the highest realistic near-term volume,
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flowing directly from the firm's existing practice. At $4,000 a day that segment
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is priced out. This is a coherent choice — a premium specialist position that
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forgoes volume — **provided the volume was not being counted on.** If early
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appointment flow is slower than expected, the SABS tier is the first place to
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look, and reintroducing a second tier is a cleaner fix than cutting the headline
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rate.
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**What makes the rate defensible.** $4,000 for a neutral who reads the contract,
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the code, and the System Impact Assessment is a fair price. $4,000 for a
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generalist is not. The rate and `/practice/technology/` are load-bearing for each
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other, which is an argument for shipping them in the same release — and for the
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Insights section carrying real technical depth rather than process explainers
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alone.
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**One thing the single rate gets right.** Published rates are close to
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unrecoverable, and it is far easier to add a lower tier later than to raise a
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headline rate. Setting the ceiling first and discounting privately preserves
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more optionality than the reverse.
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---
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## Sources
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- [ADR Chambers — Mediation Fees](https://adrchambers.com/mediation/fees/)
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- [ADR Chambers — Roster Rate / Mandatory Mediations](https://adrchambers.com/roster-rate-mediation/)
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- [ADR Chambers — Arbitration Fees](https://adrchambers.com/arbitration/fees/)
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- [Patey Mediations — Rates & Cancellation](https://pateymediations.com/rates/)
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- [Zuber Mediation — Fees](https://www.zubermediation.com/fees.html)
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- [Carroll Mediation — Rates & Cancellation](https://www.carrollmediation.ca/?page_id=16)
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- [O. Reg. 451/98 — Mediators' Fees (Rule 24.1)](https://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/regu/o-reg-451-98/latest/o-reg-451-98.html)
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