Lawyers Allegedly Behaving Badly

[medicineman]

In the 'not really surprised because: Alberta' column...

Alberta lawyer touting '51st state' support facing law society citation for allegedly threatening criminal charges 'to gain a benefit for a client'​

An Alberta lawyer who appeared on Fox News to discuss the province joining the United States is facing professional misconduct allegations in a separate case, with claims he “threatened criminal charges, including for murder, in an attempt to gain a benefit for a client.”

Jeffrey Rath, a Foothills-based lawyer specializing in treaty and Indigenous rights and environmental law, said in an interview with Fox & Friends Thursday he plans to lead a “delegation” to Washington, D.C., to seek a meeting with Trump administration officials to discuss statehood for Alberta.

Alberta lawyer touting '51st state' support facing law society citation for allegedly threatening criminal charges 'to gain a benefit for a client'

An Alberta lawyer who appeared on Fox News to discuss the province joining the United States is facing professional misconduct allegations in a separate case.

edmontonjournal.com

Maybe he should be discussing ridding himself of his Canadian passport and see if he can get a Green Card...assuming ICE doesn't rendition him Guantanamo Bay, where I'm sure he could put his law degree to use

 

[PMedMoe]

Mystery man leaves wallet full of questions in Saskatoon

Matt Johnson is not interested in talking about why he had a wallet full of ID cards from Louisiana, New York and Hong Kong when he got arrested in February in Saskatoon while driving a black Grand Cherokee rental from Calgary.

The 45-year-old American lawyer got kicked out of Canada a few weeks later, on March 7, after pleading guilty in Saskatoon provincial court to auto theft and stealing gas. Johnson was sentenced to 17 days, which he had already served, then taken by Canadian Border Services Agency officers and turned over to U.S. authorities.

Johnson already had ongoing legal troubles in California. He was wanted in Orange County on outstanding warrants for burglary, carrying fake ID and grand theft auto, and subject to a five-year domestic violence restraining order.


Weird....

 

[Halifax Tar]

Mystery man leaves wallet full of questions in Saskatoon

Matt Johnson is not interested in talking about why he had a wallet full of ID cards from Louisiana, New York and Hong Kong when he got arrested in February in Saskatoon while driving a black Grand Cherokee rental from Calgary.

The 45-year-old American lawyer got kicked out of Canada a few weeks later, on March 7, after pleading guilty in Saskatoon provincial court to auto theft and stealing gas. Johnson was sentenced to 17 days, which he had already served, then taken by Canadian Border Services Agency officers and turned over to U.S. authorities.

Johnson already had ongoing legal troubles in California. He was wanted in Orange County on outstanding warrants for burglary, carrying fake ID and grand theft auto, and subject to a five-year domestic violence restraining order.


Weird....

Wow that was a read.

 

[Blackadder1916]

Not the lawyer behaving poorly, but the Law Society.

BC court awards costs against LSBC in rare move, says penalization of Vancouver lawyer was unfair

A BC Supreme Court justice said the LSBC's conduct deserved 'at least mild judicial rebuke'

www.canadianlawyermag.com

The Supreme Court of British Columbia has awarded special costs against the Law Society of BC in a rare move, calling the process that led to the regulator imposing penalties on a Vancouver lawyer “significantly unfair.”

“I accept that, as a general rule, costs will not be awarded against a tribunal even if the petitioner succeeds,” wrote BC Supreme Court Justice Michael Tammen. “However, in my view, this is one of the rare cases where there should be costs consequences for the LSBC.”

Tammen also declined to remit the case to the LSBC, stating that “it would be the height of unfairness if I were to now permit the LSBC to recast its case.”

 

[FJAG]

Not the lawyer behaving poorly, but the Law Society.

The court:

The justice declined to remit the case back to the LSBC. He noted that counsel for the LSBC continued to try to have Samarakoone’s appeal dismissed even after conceding that the 2020 transaction was exempt from the regulator’s client verification rules. She then tried to defend the LSBC chair’s decision to penalize Samarakoone based on another financial transaction.

Tammen said this conduct prompted him to award $5,000 in costs against the LSBC. “I view this as a case of a regulator simply refusing to acknowledge a mistake,” the justice wrote, adding that if the LSBC had done so during a hearing on the matter, he might have had a different perspective.

The LSBC:

“However, there are also aspects of the decision with which we strongly disagree and will factor into our considerations and decision-making as to whether to appeal.”

LSBC's arrogance knows no bounds.

 

[Blackadder1916]

LSBC's arrogance knows no bounds.

Lawyers . . . arrogant . . . really?

 

[Fishbone Jones]

Mystery man leaves wallet full of questions in Saskatoon

Matt Johnson is not interested in talking about why he had a wallet full of ID cards from Louisiana, New York and Hong Kong when he got arrested in February in Saskatoon while driving a black Grand Cherokee rental from Calgary.

The 45-year-old American lawyer got kicked out of Canada a few weeks later, on March 7, after pleading guilty in Saskatoon provincial court to auto theft and stealing gas. Johnson was sentenced to 17 days, which he had already served, then taken by Canadian Border Services Agency officers and turned over to U.S. authorities.

Johnson already had ongoing legal troubles in California. He was wanted in Orange County on outstanding warrants for burglary, carrying fake ID and grand theft auto, and subject to a five-year domestic violence restraining order.


Weird....

Sounds like an episode of Better Call Saul.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Not sure if this one's already been posted...

B.C. lawyer reprimanded for citing fake cases invented by ChatGPT​

The cases would have provided compelling precedent for a divorced dad to take his children to China — had they been real.

But instead of savouring courtroom victory, the Vancouver lawyer for a millionaire embroiled in an acrimonious split has been told to personally compensate her client's ex-wife's lawyers for the time it took them to learn the cases she hoped to cite were conjured up by ChatGPT.

In a decision released Monday, a B.C. Supreme Court judge reprimanded lawyer Chong Ke for including two AI "hallucinations" in an application filed last December.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/lawyer-chatgpt-fake-precedent-1.7126393

 

[dapaterson]

See, as a non-lawyer, I would disbar the person who filed that permanently.

If the bar thinks that person can be salvaged then the bar needs non lawyers to make decisions.

 

[daftandbarmy]

See, as a non-lawyer, I would disbar the person who filed that permanently.

If the bar thinks that person can be salvaged then the bar needs non lawyers to make decisions.

But it's in BC so...

 

[FJAG]

See, as a non-lawyer, I would disbar the person who filed that permanently.

If the bar thinks that person can be salvaged then the bar needs non lawyers to make decisions.

The Manitoba Law Society had "lay-benchers" for many decades and every discipline panel of three one of which had to be a lay bencher as "public representative."

I can't say for certain, but I think every law society does that.

I don't think that you are typical of the general public when it comes to your view of lawyers. In my experience lay benchers were generally less severe on the individuals before them. Lawyers, especially benchers, generally have very little sympathy for those who break the rules especially where defalcation or misrepresentation occurs.

ChatGPT is well after my time and I've never used it for anything so I can't speak for its accuracy, but since all law societies have issued warnings on it now, I can only conclude that it is highly risky. My firm had various legal databases (which we paid through the nose for) and you have to rely on what the search engine brings back to you. There are ways of checking that but quite frankly if QuickLaw or CanLii or Nexis/Lexis brought me back relevant cases, then I had no reason to question them and go back to specific court houses to doublecheck the decision. Courts readily accepted those decisions and you always had to provide them with paper print offs of those cases for the judge's review.

I must admit, it should have been dead simple and cheap for her to check those citations (Not sure if ChatGPT provides a full text copy or not) because all BCSC decisions are available on CanLii in full text at no cost. Having the citation from ChatGPT should let you have the full text in minutes. I'll add that no lawyer worth his salt would tender a decision as a citation without having reviewed the relevant portions of the full text decision and not just a summary of the case.

Anyhow, this isn't a law society professional conduct hearing, its a hearing on costs and, from what I can see, was properly decided.

 

[ModlrMike]

A Manitoba two-fer:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/lawyer-disbarred-legal-aid-billing-scheme-1.7485846

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-lawyer-disbarred-law-society-manitoba-1.7506597

 

[FJAG]

A Manitoba two-fer:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/lawyer-disbarred-legal-aid-billing-scheme-1.7485846

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-lawyer-disbarred-law-society-manitoba-1.7506597

Sigh

I don't give a crap about the first guy. Saw a number of those in my days as a bencher and in each case had to suppress an urge to firmly kick them in the nuts repeatedly.

The latter case has me troubled. I recall her from many decades ago and always had a lot of respect for her. Her current situation reminds me of a case I sat second chair on in my first year of practice. It was a three-party litigation and all the lawyers involved in it (except me ) were in their late 70s at their youngest and no longer at the top of their form. The guy I was being mentored by had been a power in the western legal community, didn't need the money and remained on the job part-time mostly to stay out of the house. The other two, sadly, were what you would call hand-to-mouth lawyers who couldn't afford to retire. It made me rethink the "Rumpole of the Bailey" series in a different light.