If your name is on the document and the money is not, get advice before you sign.

ILA is required or strongly recommended whenever someone is being asked to sign a legal document where their name carries the obligation but they are not the one receiving the financial benefit. The most common situations are guarantors on a mortgage or loan, non-borrowing spouses consenting to a mortgage on a matrimonial home, family members being added to or removed from title, co-borrowers signing alongside someone whose financial situation they have less control over, and parties to a real estate transaction where one side asks the other to confirm they had independent advice. Lenders, solicitors, and accountants typically require ILA in writing in these scenarios.

ILA protects the loan from being challenged later. Without it, a guarantor or non-borrowing spouse can argue in default proceedings that they did not understand what they were signing, that they were pressured into signing, or that they were not capable of giving meaningful consent. Courts look hard at whether ILA was obtained when these arguments are raised. With a properly executed ILA certificate, those arguments are far less likely to succeed. Lenders require ILA because the certificate makes the loan more enforceable and harder to defeat in court.

ILA is typically charged as a flat fee, paid before or at the meeting. The fee depends on the complexity of the document, the type of transaction, and the lawyer's office. Some lawyers charge a single flat rate regardless of file type; others scale the fee with the complexity of the documents being reviewed. Our ILA appointments are flat-fee, with the number quoted at the time of booking. There are no hourly add-ons.

No. The whole point of independent legal advice is that the lawyer giving advice is independent of every other party in the transaction, including your spouse. If you and your spouse are signing the same loan, the same guarantee, or the same family transfer, each of you needs to meet with a different lawyer. We can act for one of you on the ILA, but the other will need to make a separate appointment with another lawyer.

Most ILA meetings take about an hour. The actual time depends on the complexity of the documents, how many questions you have, and whether the file involves more than one document (for example, a mortgage and a guarantee on the same transaction). Simple guarantees on standard institutional mortgages move faster. Complex private lending packages, family transfers with multiple security documents, or anything involving co-signers can run longer. We block enough time on the calendar so the meeting is not rushed.

Yes. The decision to sign is always yours. The purpose of ILA is to make sure you understand what you are agreeing to before you sign, not to push you to sign. If you walk into the meeting and decide partway through that you don't want to proceed, the meeting ends and no certificate is issued. The fee is still payable for the time, but you are not obligated to sign anything you don't want to sign. We tell people this at the start of every meeting because it is the foundation of how ILA works.

No. ILA is a one-time consultation focused specifically on the document in front of you. We are not your lawyer for the broader transaction, we are not negotiating on your behalf, and we are not advising on tax, business strategy, or matters outside the document being signed. If you need ongoing representation on the underlying transaction (a real estate purchase, a corporate matter, an estate plan), that is a separate engagement. ILA is a defined, limited-scope service designed to make sure you understand the specific document you are about to sign.