Law Times

Prosecution halted after lawyer joins Crown BY ALEX ROBINSON Law Times A judge has stopped the Kenora Crown attorney's office from prosecuting the case of a man, after his defence lawyer took a job as a Crown mere days before his trial was set to begin. Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Shaw has ordered a Crown from another area be brought in to prosecute Barry Mandamin, as his former lawyer, Pieter Joubert, has accepted an offer of employment with the Kenora Crown attorney's office. Shaw found that it was likely Crowns in such a small office would talk about their cases to- gether, and without the necessary safeguards in place, a "reasonably informed member of the public" would not have confidence that confidential information would not be inadvertently disclosed. "In the instant case, choice of counsel is not a consideration. The balancing of the integrity of the justice system and the mobil- ity of lawyers is done in a context where the liberty of the accused is at stake," said Shaw, in his decision barring the Kenora Crowns from prosecuting R. v. Mandamin. "The preservation of the integ- rity of our system of justice must be the prevailing value. Justice must not only be done, but it must be seen to be done." Lawyers say the decision sets out what local Crown offices need to do when the Crown employs a defence lawyer. Daniel Lerner, a former Crown who is now a criminal defence law- yer, says it will not be enough for Crown offices to simply assume staff will not discuss cases with a new hire and then submit affida- vits after the fact. They will now need to put safeguards in place and document the steps taken, he says. "You need to actually make a list of the cases you have potential conf licts with and then let the of- fice staff know . . . that you cannot INSIGHT ON TRUMP'S ORDER Canadian immigration lawyers may face a challenge P7 FOCUS ON Litigation P8 See Different, page 4 PM #40762529 $5.00 • Vol. 28, No.6 February 13, 2017 L AW TIMES C O V E R I N G O N T A R I O ' S L E G A L S C E N E • W W W . L A W T I M E S N E W S . C O M FIRM IN TAX BATTLE Trial needed on $2-million bill, says lawyer P5 BY ALEX ROBINSON Law Times T he lawyers representing Ecuadorian plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Chevron Corporation have ap- plied for leave to appeal a judge's decision to dismiss an action against the company's Canadian subsidiary. The case, Yaiguaje v. Chev- ron Corporation, made headlines recently after Ontario Superior Court Justice Glenn Hainey said the assets of Chevron Canada Limited could not be seized to pay out a foreign judgment against Chevron Corp., as the seven-level indirect subsidiary is not an asset of the parent company. The plaintiffs have now applied for leave to appeal the decision to the Ontario Court of Appeal. In their Notice of Appeal, the plaintiffs took issue with the judge's finding that the assets of the subsidiary are not assets of Chevron Corp. Alan Lenczner, of Lenczner Slaght Royce Smith Griffin LLP, is representing the plaintiffs. He says the plaintiffs disagree with an assertion by Hainey that Chevron Canada Limited is "a separate legal person" and "not an asset of any other person including its own parent." "That can't be right. That is the most astounding proposition of law I have ever heard," says Lenczner. "This judgment stands for the proposition that you can't collect from anybody. You can't collect from Chevron Canada because it doesn't belong to anybody when it's completely 100-per-cent owned by Chevron Corp," he adds. In a years-long legal battle, Ecuadorian villagers success- fully got a US$18-billion judg- ment against Texaco, which later merged with Chevron, claiming their region had suffered exten- sive environmental damage from pollution the company had caused and failed to clean up. An Ecuadorian appeals court later upheld the decision in 2013, but it reduced the judgment to US$9.5 billion. After Chevron, which has no See Dangerous, page 4 Arlene O'Neill says allowing the corporate veil to be pierced in a case involving Chevron Corporation would have set a dangerous legal precedent. Photo: Robin Kuniski Lawyer says judge at odds with earlier SCC ruling Plaintiffs plan to appeal Chevron decision Daniel Lerner says it will not be enough for Crown's offices to assume staff will not discuss cases with a new hire and then submit affida- vits after the fact. TORONTO | BARRIE | HAMILTON | KITCHENER 1-866-685-3311 | mcleishorlando.com cLeish Orlando_LT_Jan_20_14.indd 1 14-01-15 3:15 PM e: ssoil@docudavit.com www.docudavit.com Litigation Support Our Document Management Services include: Scanning • Indexing • OCR (Optical Character Recognition) • Electronic Document Capture and More - Call Us, We Can Help! ntitled-1 1 2014-09-26 9:29 AM Integrated Legal Marketing Solutions LawyerMarketingCanada.com/solutions Put Your Digital Marketing Tactics into High Gear Untitled-4 1 2017-02-07 4:27 PM

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