Law Times

March 27, 2017

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Law Times • march 27, 2017 Page 3 www.lawtimesnews.com BY ALEX ROBINSON Law Times A former lawyer from Florida, who spent two years in prison for a child pornography charge, is one step closer to ac- quiring a licence to practise law in Ontario. The Law Society of Upper Canada's hearing tribunal has determined that Ronald Davi- dovic, who was born in Montre- al but moved to the United States as a child, has proven he took the necessary steps to rehabilitate himself and that he is of good character, a requirement in the licensing process. Davidovic was imprisoned in a federal penitentiary and reg- istered as a sex offender after he pleaded guilty to a count of "re- ceiving material containing the visual depiction of minors en- gaging in sexually explicit con- duct," according to the decision. In 2004, police executed a search warrant at Davidovic's home and seized his computers. He subsequently admitted to police and to his wife at the time that he had viewed child por- nography since 1998. He was also originally charged with a count of possessing child porn, but that was dropped when he pleaded guilty to the other charge. Benchers Raj Anand and Jan Richardson, who served on the panel, decided to grant Davi- dovic's application. "The applicant's conduct in the years preceding 2004 was reprehensible, but it is not an au- tomatic or permanent bar to his admission, given the evidence and positions of the parties, and in light of the applicant's deter- mination to be an ethical and productive lawyer," Anand and Richardson said in the decision, Law Society of Upper Canada v. Davidovic. Bencher Paul Cooper held the lone dissenting opinion on the split three-mem- ber panel. The tribunal used what is called the five "Armstrong fac- tors" in determining whether Davidovic was in present good character, which is a require- ment for the issuance of a licence to practise law. These factors include the nature and duration of the mis- conduct, whether the applicant is remorseful, the rehabilitative efforts that have been taken and their success, as well as the appli- cant's conduct since the miscon- duct and the amount of time that has passed since. Anand and Richardson de- termined that Davidovic had made repeated statements of re- morse and that the risk he would reoffend was very low. They also noted that there is no evidence of recurrence or subsequent bad behaviour on Davidovic's part in the 13 years since he was charged. Davidovic says he was very excited and pleased with the de- cision. "I'm very fortunate to have an opportunity to be able to practise my chosen profession again," he said in a phone inter- view from Florida. Davidovic provided the tribunal with a number of re- ports to support his application, which were written by a rever- end who served as his therapist, a social worker who conducted a court-ordered treatment pro- gram and a doctor who con- ducted a psychological evalua- tion and risk assessment of Da- vidovic in 2013. The tribunal also received transcripts of recent interviews an LSUC investigator conducted with those who wrote the reports. The law society's counsel in the matter, Amanda Worley, did not oppose Davidovic's applica- tion after he provided testimony. In his dissenting opinion, Cooper found that Davidovic had failed to prove he was rehabilitated. He found the reports from the social worker and the reverend were dated, anecdotal and not scientific and that testimony giv- en by Davidovic lacked reliability. "The seriousness of Mr. Da- vidovic's misconduct cannot be bootstrapped by conditions when residual concerns linger about his present good charac- ter," Cooper said. In 2004, Davidovic petitioned the Florida Supreme Court for a disciplinary resignation and was granted permission to re- sign from the Florida bar with leave to appeal in five years. He did not reapply in Florida, but in 2015, he applied to the LSUC for a licence to practise in Ontario, as he plans to move to Toronto where he has family. Davidovic says he chose to apply in Ontario because there are all sorts of impediments in Florida that make it difficult to live day to day for someone con- victed of such an offence. Before his conviction, Davidovic had practised in estate and financial planning in his early career be- fore going on to act as general counsel for a large telecommu- nications company. Davidovic is still an applicant in the licensing process. A spokeswoman for the law society said it is policy not to in- terpret or comment on decisions made by the tribunal hearing panel. LT Once-imprisoned lawyer could practise law in Ontario Budget impacts way income recognized BY TIM WILBUR For Law Times T he Liberal government's second federal budget has several measures af- fecting the tax system, including proposed changes in how certain lawyers recognize income. Currently, taxpayers in cer- tain "designated professions," including lawyers, may elect to exclude unbilled work in prog- ress in computing their income for tax purposes. This permits those taxpayers to defer recog- nition of income (as compared to full accrual) while being able to deduct the related expenses in the year they are incurred. "Subject to transitional pro- visions, for taxation years be- ginning on or after March 22, 2017, the budget proposes to eliminate the ability of such designated professionals to elect to use billed-basis accounting," explains Adrienne Oliver, a tax lawyer at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada in Toronto. "This will affect law firms that do not use the full accrual method of deter- mining their income." Gregory Wylie, a tax lawyer at Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto, says, "The budget is best described as fair- ly light on tax measures. There are no major policy announce- ments or changes." Changes to the tax system include: • prevent the avoidance or defer- ral of income tax through the use of offsetting derivative pos- itions in straddle transactions; • extend to Registered Educa- tion Savings Plans and Regis- tered Disability Savings Plans anti-avoidance rules similar to the ones applicable in con- nection with Tax-Free Savings Accounts and Registered Re- tirement Savings Plans; • clarify the intended meaning of "factual control" under the In- come Tax Act for the purpose of determining who has con- trol of a corporation in order to prevent inappropriate access to supports such as the small busi- ness tax rate and the enhanced refundable 35-per-cent Scien- tific Research and Experiment- al Development Tax Credit Program for small businesses; • prevent the avoidance of tax on income from the insurance of Canadian risks by extending the foreign-affiliate base ero- sion rules to foreign branches of Canadian life insurers; • replace the Caregiver Credit, Infirm Dependant Credit and Family Caregiver Tax Credit with a single new non-refund- able credit — the Canada Care- giver Credit; • modify the tax treatment of successful oil and gas explora- tory drilling to maintain their effectiveness; • increase excise duty rates on al- cohol products by two per cent effective the day after Budget Day, 2017; • amend the definition of a taxi business under the Excise Tax Act to level the playing field and ensure that ride-sharing busi- nesses are subject to the same GST/HST rules as taxis. LT NEWS The Law Society of Upper Canada's hearing tribunal has determined that Ronald Davidovic has proven he took the necessary steps to rehabilitate himself. Tel: 905-841-5717 www.bolandhowe.com THE PROOF IS IN THE PRECEDENTS Verdict: Jones v Ross (Newmarket) 4073/87 (ONSC) SNOWMOBILE ACCIDENT? Consider referring your client to us Tim Boland For further liability verdicts, ask for our Trial Report Card Untitled-2 1 2017-03-22 10:13 AM

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