A general monetary retainer is an amount paid to a lawyer by a client to secure the availability for a specific period time. Unlike a specific retainer, general monetary retainer cannot be allocated to any legal services that are rendered or will be rendered.
General monetary retainers are extremely rare because clients are likely to expect that any payment to their lawyers is intended to go toward payment of their legal fees. Therefore, the Law Society has very stringent rules regarding how a retainer can be considered as a general monetary retainer.
From bookkeeping point of view, you deposit a general monetary retainer directly to your general account. However, a specific retainer should be deposited into trust account first and then transferred to your general account when the legal services were rendered and invoice was issued.
What money goes to which bank account? trust account or general account?
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