Rule 49 Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners
Rule 49 of the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners (RPC) 2023 is about Retainer. It is under Part VI (Remuneration and Fees) of Chapter 1 (Conduct) of the Rules. It provides as follows:
(1) Subject to paragraph (2) of this rule, a lawyer may accept general or special retainers.
(2) Where a lawyer accepts a retainer in respect of litigation, he shall be separately instructed and separately remunerated by fees for each piece of work, provided that a lawyer shall not—
(a) represent or undertake to represent a client for all his litigation or a part of it on an agreed Jump sum over a period of time ; or
(b) accept instructions from a client on terms that a particular class of court cases shall be done at a fixed fee in each case irrespective of the circumstances of each case.
(3) A lawyer who accepts a retainer shall not—
(a) in the case of a general retainer, advise on, or appeal in any proceedings detrimental to the interest of the client paying the retainer during the period of the retainer ; and
(b) in the case of a special retainer, accept instructions in any matter forming the subject matter of the retainer which will involve advising or arguing against the interest of the client paying the retainer.
(4) In this rule—
“retainer” means an agreement by a lawyer to give his services to a client ;
“general retainer” means a retainer which covers the client’s work generally ;
and
“special retainer” means 2 retainer which covers a particular matter of the client.
