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Lawyers Allegedly Behaving Badly

Lots of very expensive things are very mediocre ;)
I've never understood how any piece of art should sell for millions of dollars. I've got prints from Winners and Marshalls hanging on my walls that came in at $50 that look perfectly lovely.

:giggle:
 
If you repeatedly fail to provide information for a routine review of your accounts, then, the morning of a hearing ask for a delay without reasons, you may well lose your license.

 
If you repeatedly fail to provide information for a routine review of your accounts, then, the morning of a hearing ask for a delay without reasons, you may well lose your license.

She hasn't lost the licence but merely has had it suspended. That's a step short of disbarment.

Unfortunately these cases aren't unique. During my years as a bencher we dealt with many of them. In most cases its because folks get so far behind and are so busy that they lose focus on what is important - properly managing your trust accounts. Financial audits target trust accounts, not general accounts. In some cases its because they've been mismanaging or stealing from their trust accounts.

The biggest problem during my days there wasn't so much the nonresponsiveness, it was the length of time between spot audit cycles. When I started practicing in the 1980s, a firm or sole lawyer could expect the law societies auditors to come around once every 18 to 24 months or so to do a routine spot audit. By the time I left practice in the mid 00s the routine spot audits were mostly going by the wayside while the auditors were all concentrating on folks who were known problems. (I think that in Ontario now it may be something like once every 5 years and even up to 10 years. That's troubling in that spot audits usually found issues before they got out of hand and made it much easier to correct problems. It was and is a remedial program as much as a disciplinary one.

Yup. It's a resources issue that could be mitigated by throwing more money for more auditors at it.

🍻
 
If you repeatedly fail to provide information for a routine review of your accounts, then, the morning of a hearing ask for a delay without reasons, you may well lose your license.

She looks like a fun person.
 

Coda: One of Bowie's victims sought compensation from the Ontario law society's compensation fund. They declined, stating that it was intended only to cover financial losses.

That decision has been overturned by the divisional court, stating that the legislation underlying the compensation fund covers "losses" and does not limit that to financial losses.

 
Coda: One of Bowie's victims sought compensation from the Ontario law society's compensation fund. They declined, stating that it was intended only to cover financial losses.

That decision has been overturned by the divisional court, stating that the legislation underlying the compensation fund covers "losses" and does not limit that to financial losses.

I'm pretty sure that this isn't the last word on this case. The issue of what constitutes a "loss" isn't the relevant part here. I think it has more to do with the word "governed" v "guide." At the end of the day, payments out of the fund for losses are discretionary

(5) Convocation in its absolute discretion may make grants from the Fund in order to relieve or mitigate loss sustained by a person in consequence of,

(a) dishonesty on the part of a person, while a licensee, in connection with his or her professional business or in connection with any trust of which he or she was or is a trustee; or

(b) dishonesty, before the amendment day, on the part of a person, while a member, in connection with his or her law practice or in connection with any trust of which he or she was or is a trustee. 2006, c. 21, Sched. C, s. 71 (4).
"Governed" may have been a poor choice of words in the Law Society's letter, but it isn't entirely inaccurate.

I think the outcome here is that this goes back to the appropriate committee which will now review the case having to accept the fact that it is a "loss" that may be covered and then will have to reconsider "if" they will reimburse her and then by how much.

I think the guaranteed outcomes are that 1) the legislation may be changed to include the word "financial" in a way that excludes general damage awards, and 2) the law society's insurance premiums which underlies the fund (I'm guessing they have that for excess claims) will increase in the interval.

🍻
 
Not a pure lawyers issue... but a judge in Belleville held a contempt hearing for the Crown / for the Ontario Solicitor General, for their failure to deliver an inmate for a plea and sentencing.


 
Not a pure lawyers issue... but a judge in Belleville held a contempt hearing for the Crown / for the Ontario Solicitor General, for their failure to deliver an inmate for a plea and sentencing.


Just shows why Correctional Officers absolutely detest Judges.
F$%ckin' arseholes have zero idea the shitstorm they have caused with their total lack awareness of the things that can go seriously wrong in a jail.

"You WILL have prisoner X in my court tomorrow "
* prisoner X refuses to leave cell*

Corrections has a choice of "make him leave cell" even though time/staffing is already taxed to the max, and then the judge gives him a lighter sentence for the trauma he was "forced" to go through, or risk the "contempt" crap.

I hate them.
 
Just shows why Correctional Officers absolutely detest Judges.
F$%ckin' arseholes have zero idea the shitstorm they have caused with their total lack awareness of the things that can go seriously wrong in a jail.

"You WILL have prisoner X in my court tomorrow "
* prisoner X refuses to leave cell*

Corrections has a choice of "make him leave cell" even though time/staffing is already taxed to the max, and then the judge gives him a lighter sentence for the trauma he was "forced" to go through, or risk the "contempt" crap.

I hate them.

Dude, just don't get mad at me.

My anti-Hulk spray is broken ;)
 
Just shows why Correctional Officers absolutely detest Judges.
F$%ckin' arseholes have zero idea the shitstorm they have caused with their total lack awareness of the things that can go seriously wrong in a jail.

"You WILL have prisoner X in my court tomorrow "
* prisoner X refuses to leave cell*

Corrections has a choice of "make him leave cell" even though time/staffing is already taxed to the max, and then the judge gives him a lighter sentence for the trauma he was "forced" to go through, or risk the "contempt" crap.

I hate them.

Seems to me the Court is just reaching it's own bar of impatience, and feels the province in question will only continue to make such problems worse through lack of resourcing, etc., unless the Court starts holding it accountable.

Systemic and persistent delays in the delivery of in-custody accused persons to courthouses across this province occur on a daily basis,” Horton said on Friday,

Yet Horton also said those are years-old problems and “the province has not actively … improved” the situation.


Whether its bureaucrats or politicians that need to be held to account, I'm not sure.

But I don't disagree with the Judge's modus operandi here.... I spent too long in the CAF to know nothing in big bureaucratic institutions like government improves until what is currently in place has degraded to the point that a catastrophic failure (or multiple) occurs. The Court is just helping that along....

"You WILL have prisoner X in my court tomorrow "
* prisoner X refuses to leave cell*

Why would you quote an article that provides a different fact pattern, then indicate "(This) just shows..." ..... and provide an example/summary that does not align with the news article at all?

Maybe you have an example of that to share.... but it seems irrelevant to what happened going by the news article you've quoted.
 
I just quoted a post that had a news article in it.
My post comes from 32 years of working in that system, and trust me, the courts (as you called it) are 100% the problem, not the jails.

Did you even read my example of how our arms are tied?
Guess you work in a field where folks are at worst, semi cooperative, try it in a workplace where at times you must physically force cooperation, but then are railed (sometimes charged and aways thought to be in the wrong) for actually doing the job the Judge has legally ordered you to carry out.
 
In the case at hand, the main failure appears to be or communication. Calling in to the court to inform them of the problem(s) should be a basic thing.
 
In the case at hand, the main failure appears to be or communication. Calling in to the court to inform them of the problem(s) should be a basic thing.
When they had time I'm sure they would have.....you sound like a clerk who's upset tomorrow's box lunch order didnt come in on time from the folks presently taking small arms fire outside the wire.

"Why cant those Infantry guys follow protocol, its so simple?"
 
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