Law Times

PAGE 2 NEWS July 25, 2011 • law Times Lawyer apologized, repaid colleague's rent Continued from page 1 smooth over communication diffi culties between the accused and his lawyer. By December 2007, four years after his arrest, Aziga had gone through six defence lawyers and decided to retain Bagambiire. Since Bagambiire had little experience in criminal law, he took on Pieters as co-counsel. Pieters was forced to take full carriage between March and April 2008 while Bagambiire served an earlier suspension for charging excessive and unreasonable fees to clients. Th at case also resulted in a two-year supervision of Bagambiire's practice as well as an order to pay $100,000 to the law society's compensation fund. With Bagambiire temporarily out of the picture, Pieters and Aziga began to clash, according to the law society decision. Even after he returned, the relationship didn't improve. In August 2008, the lockout ignited a combustible situation. Bagambiire was months behind on the rent at their offi ce at 372 Bay St. Pieters was up to date with his sublease payments, but a third lawyer hadn't paid his share for months. Meanwhile, Bagambiire told the panel that arrears in legal aid payments had left him $40,000 out of pocket, despite the fact he was being paid on a special basis under the Rowbotham rules. According to the decision, Bagambiire was taken by surprise on Aug. 5, 2008, when he found the landlord had locked him out of the premises. Despite the problem, he had to be in Hamilton for a meeting and court appearance with Aziga. In the meantime, Pieters had to pay the landlord to retrieve his client fi les, court robes, and personal eff ects locked up inside the offi ce. Th e next day, Pieters was removed from the record on the Aziga fi le after bringing a motion citing the diffi culties between the two lawyers and "an eff ective breakdown in the relationship between solicitor and client." After getting out of court, Pieters made his complaint to the law society. He noted he viewed Bagambiire's failure to transmit his payments to the landlord as theft, according to the decision. While law society staff advised Pieters that the issue was a civil matter, he declined to go down that route. By mid-August, Bagambiire had apologized and repaid Pieters four months of rent. In its recent decision, the law society panel ruled that being in arrears with offi ce rent doesn't constitute professional misconduct. "To hold otherwise would potentially be to subject a large swath of fi nancially precarious practitioners to disciplinary suspension in economically distraught times," wrote Bencher Constance Backhouse in the decision. But Bagambiire did admit misconduct in relation to another client he took on around the same time as Aziga for a medical malpractice claim. He accepted a $5,000 retainer from the client but never deposited it into his trust account and failed to respond to her request for a written analysis of the case. When she switched lawyers, he also failed to turn over the fi le. Th e panel, while impressed by Bagambiire's character references and his "genuine remorse," said his actions demanded a suspension. It also ordered him to return the $5,000 retainer and pay the law society $5,000 in costs. Following a six-month trial, Aziga, who has HIV, was found guilty in April 2009 of fi rst- degree murder in the deaths of two sex partners. A further fi ve women were also infected with HIV following encounters with Aziga, while four others tested negative for the virus. In late June this year, Aziga, who is still represented by Bagambiire, returned to court after a Crown application to have him designated a dangerous off ender. Crown lawyers argued at the hearing that Aziga's high libido could cause him to reoff end, while defence counsel said he had learned his lesson and promised to wear condoms and inform potential partners about his HIV status. Ontario Superior Justice Th omas Lofchik has reserved his decision until Aug. 2. For his part, Pieters has since moved to another offi ce where he shares space and resources with 25 independent lawyers. "Quite frankly, despite the stress, frustration, and humiliation that situation caused, and I have not really spoken to many people about it because I was ashamed that I became part of a lockout, like I did something bad, things worked out for the better for me," he said. Byers files appeal notice Continued from page 1 that detailed sexual activity between a pedophile and an eight-year-old girl. "I fi nd these writings speak to Mr. Byers' in- ability to regulate his sexually deviant fantasies, even when not disinhibited by drugs or alcohol and even while in custody facing a dangerous of- fender hearing," DiTomaso wrote. In addition, DiTomaso questioned whether Byers was prepared to engage in treatment, in- cluding medication to reduce his sex drive. "I fi nd there is uncertainty about Mr. Byers' will- ingness to take sex-drive reducing medication and about the impact such medication could have in reducing his risk," DiTomaso wrote. In any case, DiTomaso said, the level of supervi- sion proposed by the defence went beyond what the Correctional Service of Canada could off er. But that wasn't good enough for Brodsky. "I think it's wrong to think you can make someone a dangerous off ender because you, the government, don't spend the money to put in the programs to supervise people in the community," he says. Byers has fi led notice to appeal the decision, which Brodsky says placed too much onus on his client to show he wasn't a risk to the public. "I think this case lowers threshold to being found a dangerous of- fender in an alarming way. In a civilized, democratic society, if the state is going to take your liberty away, it has to be the state who has to prove why. "Nobody likes talking about off enders who are planning or actually carried out an off ence against children, and it may be frightening to people out there to think about it, but there's a relatively large population of sex off enders out there who have pe- dophiliac tendencies. Most of them, once they're treated, don't reoff end." KEEP PACE WITH THE LATEST CHANGES IN ONTARIO ESTATES LAW NEW EDITION CONSOLIDATED ONTARIO ESTATES STATUTES AND REGULATIONS 2012 Consolidated Ontario Estates Statutes and Regulations 2012 is a current, convenient compendium of estates statutes, rules and regulations. 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• Estates Ruling
• Maverick Retires
• Focus On Forensics/Private Investigators