Law Times

LEGAL AID CHANGES SUBSTITUTED NAME Crown fails to notify new accused of charge Follow LAW TIMES on www.twitter.com/lawtimes $4.00 • Vol. 24, No. 4 P3 Policies put criminal practices at risk FOCUS ON P6 Intellectual Property/ Trademark Law L aw TIMes P9 CO V E R I N G O N TA R I O ' S L E G A L S C E N E • W W W. L AW T I M E S N E W S . CO M ntitled-4 1 January 28, 2013 12-03-20 10:44 A Nortel workers decry fees paid to lawyers Analyst finds professionals billed $755M during bankruptcy case BY YAMRI TADDESE P Law Times 'So $755 million is 3.8 times the professional fees in Canada's largest restructuring, which is three times larger than this Nortel case,' says Diane Urquhart. Photo: Robin Kuniski rofessionals involved in Nortel Networks Corp.'s bankruptcy proceedings have so far racked up $755 million in fees since the talks began in 2009, according to data compiled by a Toronto financial analyst. In Canada, the troubled company has so far paid professionals such as lawyers, accountants, court monitors, and investment bankers $244 million in fees, says independent financial analyst Diane Urquhart. Urquhart says she compiled the numbers from court files. The majority of the 20,000 former employees in Canada are pensioners, severed workers, and people on long-term disability. The amount paid to professionals in Canada is nearly three times the $85 million the employees on disability are claiming through proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Paying large amounts of money to professionals means less cash for the workers seeking their part of Nortel's $10-billion pot of assets, says Urquhart, who calls the bills unprecedented compared to other bankruptcy cases. Urquhart was the court-appointed financial expert for the retail owners involved in the asset-backed commercial paper case. That was the largest court-supervised restructuring case in Canadian history. The professional fees in that case were $200 million, says Urquhart, who's working pro bono for the Nortel workers. "So $755 million is 3.8 times the professional fees in Canada's largest restructuring, which is three times larger than this Nortel case," she says, noting the ABCP matter involved $32 billion in assets to go around. The employees on disability are the ones in the most difficulty, according to Urquhart. Unlike the deferred pensioners, many of whom have gone on to other jobs, the ones on disability are still suffering their losses daily, she says. Josee Marin, 44, was one of the former Nortel employees receiving longterm disability benefits when the company entered CCAA proceedings. See CCAA, page 5 Paralegal, agent rapped for fake judgment Law Times A Toronto paralegal and a real estate agent forged a judge's signature on a fake default judgment against two defendants they were suing, Superior Court Justice Michael Penny has found. Penny determined in John Joseph AKA John D'Souza and Peter D'Gama v. Ritchie James Linton that he never signed the June 19, 2012, judgment bearing his signature. The purported judgment, obtained ex parte, declares the defendants in a real estate dispute guilty of conspiracy and fraud and awards the plaintiffs, John D'Souza and Peter D'Gama, $60,000 in damages, $48,000 in exemplary damages, and $5,000 in costs. "I find that the plaintiffs, or one of them acting in concert with the other, falsified my signature on the June 19, 2012, judgment by cutting and pasting a copy of my signature from another order or endorsement . . . onto this form of judgment," wrote Penny. "The plaintiffs sent copies of the fake June 19, 2012, judgment to the defendants, representing it to be an authentic, valid judgment of the court. They used the judgment to threaten serious consequences, including criminal proceedings." D'Souza, a paralegal licensed by the Law Society of Upper Canada, tells Law Times that he and D'Gama believe Penny signed the Superior Court Justice Michael Penny found this default judgment with his signature to be a fake. judgment but suggest he has no recollection of it. D'Gama is a real estate agent. The pair, who are appealing Penny's ruling, originally brought motions against the previous owners of an Etobicoke home "they believed they were entitled to close on," according to David Silver, counsel for two of the defendants. Alleging a breach of an PM #40762529 BY YAMRI TADDESE See Judge, page 5 Recruiting? Post your position on Great rates. Great reach. Great results. Contact Sandy Shutt at sandra.shutt@thomsonreuters.com for details. JobsInLaw 1-8 pg 5X.indd 1 2/15/11 4:12:27 PM

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