You or your lawyer can end the solicitor-client your working relationship; you can fire your lawyer and your lawyer can fire you. From a lawyer's point of view, neither event occurs particularly often, but it does happen.

Clients usually want to fire their lawyers when they're displeased unhappy with the service they're receiving. You can fire your lawyer simply by sending him or her a letter to that effect or giving your lawyer a call, though you will no doubt want to phrase a bit more nicely than "I'm firing you." The lawyer-client relationship is a business relationship, and you can terminate this relationship any time you wish.

First, you'll have to pay your outstanding account, if there is one. If you disagree with the amount charged, you can apply to the court to have your lawyer's bill "taxedreviewed," which is described in more detail above. On the other hand, if there's still money in your retainer, that's your money and you can ask to have it sent back to you.

Then there's the matter of your file. If your litigation case is still on-going, you'll need to get your file. If you've hired another lawyer, your lawyer will normally just send it to your new counsel; if you haven't, you're entitled to ask that your lawyer send it straight to you. Of course, there may be a slight problem if you still owe money to your lawyer. If you still owe money, your lawyer is entitled to keep your file until his or her account is paid in full. In the right circumstances, your lawyer may agree to transfer your file to your new lawyer on the new lawyer's promise to make sure that the bill gets paid when the file concludes.

#the trust aspect of the solicitorlawyer-client relationship has broken down.