Clients who have been overcharged for legal work may find relief through the provincial government advocates generically known as "taxing courts."

Low profile, and indeed bordering on forgotten, the taxing courts are squirreled away in the provincial court systems, located in the Court of Queen's Bench (AB, MB, SK), Supreme Court (BC, NF, NS, PEI), or General Division (ON). Quebec and New Brunswick do not have taxing courts; the only organised means of recourse are the Law Societies, which are operated by lawyers.

While some complaints get token reductions or none at all, depending on the case and province, other clients have seen their bills plummet as much as fifty percent –with Ontario and the Western provinces being more aggressive on reductions.

As a rule of thumb, you should file the complaint within 30 days of the date of the final bill. Most provinces offer more leeway, and most have ways to get around the time limit –but 30 days should be the working assumption.

To initiate the process, gallop down to the courthouse and pick up the complaint form, write out a coherent complaint, and return the papers to the clerk with the filing fee, ranging from fifteen to fifty dollars. The clerk will provide you with a summons to serve your lawyer.

Nothing like litigation, the hearings are held within a few weeks of filing. These hearings are fairly informal, more likely in an office than a courtroom, with the emphasis on facts rather than points of law. Clients generally represent themselves.

The taxing officer (sometimes called a taxing master or assessment officer) hears both sides in fairly short order and makes a decision, usually on the spot. If he reduces the lawyer's bill, he issues the client a legally binding judgement.

There are limits to the tax courts' powers. They will probably find for the client if there is flagrant overbilling. Some taxing officers also find for the client if an inexperienced lawyer charged for excessive research.

But in cases where a competent lawyer gave it a vigorous try, and billed a rational number of hours, a taxing officer might not lower the bill no matter how disastrous the outcome. That is, the taxing officer is not prepared to say, "Your lawyer should have known the opposition had bribed the judge."

Nevertheless, taxing officers know how lawyers operate - and if they are not quite pit-bull consumer advocates, it is hard to go wrong for a fifty dollar filing fee.