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Lawyers Allegedly Behaving Badly

I'm thinking that hiring a lawyer named "Cartel" might have been the first red flag

And now facing contempt charges; apparently, saying "my wife was responsible for the trust fund, and she's not able to testify" isn't the flex one might think it is. I suspect the judge was less enthusiastic about that claim when testimony that a line of credit expenditure was to repair a sewer backup was demonstrably false, and the funds instead were funnelled into the trust account to cover some of the fraudulent transactions.

 
And now facing contempt charges; apparently, saying "my wife was responsible for the trust fund, and she's not able to testify" isn't the flex one might think it is. I suspect the judge was less enthusiastic about that claim when testimony that a line of credit expenditure was to repair a sewer backup was demonstrably false, and the funds instead were funnelled into the trust account to cover some of the fraudulent transactions.

In cases like that there should be a criminal investigation and, if warranted, charges as well. Seems to be a pretty clear breach of trust and theft by conversion. It doesn’t sound like a super complex investigation; some victim/witness statements and a couple rounds of production orders would probably do it, so long as the law society was willing to play ball on working through the privilege issues.
 
Self regulation or self protection?

The self-protection, 'circling the wagons' is not limited to law societies. Many other professional regulatory bodies, teachers and doctors in Ontario, come under similar fire.

The one point I will quibble with is the claim that mispronouncing someone's name is microaggression and a go-to ground for disrespect and discrimination. Heck, my surname is Scottish is is mispronounced more often than said correctly. Heck, I've even been told how it should be pronounced (incorrectly). I guess because I'm not a visible minority it doesn't matter.
 
The self-protection, 'circling the wagons' is not limited to law societies. Many other professional regulatory bodies, teachers and doctors in Ontario, come under similar fire.

The one point I will quibble with is the claim that mispronouncing someone's name is microaggression and a go-to ground for disrespect and discrimination. Heck, my surname is Scottish is is mispronounced more often than said correctly. Heck, I've even been told how it should be pronounced (incorrectly). I guess because I'm not a visible minority it doesn't matter.
Ditto. If I had a nickel for every time my name is mispronounced... With the exception of the "highly private information" that seemed to have come out that no one seemed to notice (which makes you wonder what it was - and it still might have been relevant to the case) this isn't much of an article of earth-shattering dimensions. Seems the reporter was just fluffing out the piece.

I've mentioned before that I've been a bencher in Manitoba for eight years and sat on complaints investigation or discipline or reimbursement for all of those. There is a tremendous financial cost on the law society in both actual money spent and volunteer time of lawyers who could otherwise be earning $3-500 an hour. Penalties are high especially when the costs of administering the hearing (which can be in the tens of thousands) are placed on the lawyer. When it comes to reimbursement, law societies pay out millions to defrauded individuals insurance rates for professional negligence.

I know people want to whine about self-discipline but, quite frankly, its a burden on the good lawyers doing it and most of the time it works more expeditiously then similar government agencies - ever go through a civil rights tribunal? or the courts?

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