Law Times

PAGE 2 LSUC looking to suspend lawyers who flaunt costs orders NEWS BY KENDYL SEBESTA Law Times pended, a new report from the LSUC's profession- al regulation committee is recommending. The recommendation, one of three proposed changes to the law society's policies on cost awards L awyers and paralegals who continue to practise law while owing disciplinary- related costs to the Law Society of Upper Canada should have their licences sus- recommendations to Convocation on June 28. "There should be a process in place that better deals with these issues. That is why we thought it was appropriate to recommend that people who do not pay have their licences to practise suspend- ed with the option to propose an extension." According to the law society' by the committee to Convocation last month, would give the LSUC jurisdiction to automatically suspend a licensee or order an automatic summary suspension for non-payment. However, the suspension would end once the law- enforcement department, 45 working licens- ees have carried unpaid costs orders since Dec. 31, 2011. The amounts owed range from $500 to $75,000. Of the 45 licensees, 33 have never made a payment to the law society and owe a combined total of more than $300,000. Still, some benchers criticized the proposals. Bencher John Campion, for example, says the s monitoring and yer pays the costs in full. At the same time, lawyers and paralegals would be able to apply for an extension in certain circumstances, such as medical emergencies. British Columbia, Alberta, and Nova Scotia al- ready have similar rules in place that automatically suspend lawyers if they don't pay their cost orders as a result of law society discipline proceedings. But Ontario' paratively lengthy process. As a result, it oſten doesn't extensively pursue outstanding balances held by law- yers and paralegals because doing so increases the tri- bunal office' s law society must go through a com- When it pursues that process, according to the report, it's oſten unsuccessful. In fact, the law society s caseload, the committee's report notes. expects to collect roughly 10 per cent of the money owing in any given year, Bencher Christopher Bredt said during Convocation proceedings in June. "Law society staff have said it is oſten difficult July 9, 2012 • law Times Deal separate from Charter challenge Continued from page 1 the association in relation to the initial constitutional challenge. However, Blais notes the new agreement is a separate matter from the constitutional challenge. She says the constitutional matters address the issue of establishing an appropriate base rate of pay for 2006 while the tentative agreement addresses the three-year period beginning in May 2011. "It certainly is an unusual dynamic, but we felt we had to move " forward and think about what we could do for our members in the present," says Blais. "Any mechanism that gets us closer to closing that gap has to be dealt with. Right now, we're focused on moving forward. In its submission to the arbitration board in May as part of its ongo- ing bargaining with the association, the Treasury Board hinted that the funds for the wage increase would likely be hard to come by. " recommendation is "wildly inappropriate" for struggling lawyers. "Costs represent a significant barrier to access to justice," says Campion. "And I think here, costs are wildly inappropriate for someone who may be fac- ing disbarment and probably feels pretty hopeless to begin with. I think for people with troubles and who don't have the money to pay, it' their stress and add to the problem rather than fix it." Several other benchers echoed Campion' timents. They argued that when the law society makes significant costs orders against lawyers, those who can't afford to pay them will end up fac- ing disbarment rather than suspension. For his part, Bredt said the dollar amount of costs s just going to increase s sen- to 2014-15 will reach a cumulative $152 billion and the federal debt will climb to almost $614 billion," the board' "This means the government has limited fiscal flexibility in which to address emerging concerns and priorities during these uncertain times, including collective bargaining demands." But the government is now touting the tentative agreement as At the federal government level, expected deficits from 2008-09 s submission noted. to initiate proceedings against a licensee for cost orders and reminders typically don't elicit a re- sponse, " said Bredt, who presented the committee's orders will be up to the discretion of the panel and noted safeguards will be in place in the form of a re- quest for an extension of time to pay. While Convocation approved the recommen- dations, the committee's working group will study the issue further and report back later this year be- fore any changes take effect. LT a win for all sides. "This agreement is a win for employees and for Canadian taxpayers," said Treasury Board spokeswoman Theresa Knowles. "With this agreement, the government is confident it will be able to attract and retain quality prosecutors and other law- yers while at the same time ensuring value for taxpayers. The key components of this agreement are the elimination of accumulated overtime, the elimination of compensation for travelling time, the elimination of voluntary severance — which to date has been elimi- nated for 230,000 unionized and non-unionized federal govern- ment employees — and a total cumulative increase of 15.25 per cent over a three-year contract that will expire on May 9, 2014." Knowles said the overall increase will involve a two-per-cent boost in May 2013 with an additional 10 per cent for restructuring and adjustment due to market pressures. As for where the money will come from, she said departments have to fund wage increases from their existing budgets. LT for Classes Starting in September 2012 Part-time, Executive LLM program for corporate counsel and practising lawyers Information Sessions Wednesday, December 7, 2011 5:30 - 7:00 pm Friday, December 9, 2011 8:00 - 9:30 am U of T Faculty of Law, Faculty Lounge 78 Queen's Park, Toronto No registration required. Please feel free to drop in anytime during these hours. Taught by U of T Faculty of Law professors, together with top international faculty from INSEAD Business School, NYU School of Law, and Rotman School of Management. For more information and to apply: http://www.law.utoronto.ca/programs/GPLLM.html http://www.law.utoronto.ca/programs/GPLLM.html For more information and to apply: Supported by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) - Ontario Chapter and in partnership with Carswell, a Thomson Reuters business. GLLM_LT_June4_12.indd 1 www.lawtimesnews.com 12-05-29 4:18 PM

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