Law Times

Page 2 December 3, 2012 • Law Times NEWS Mattson held for hours AON Hewitt to be buffer content of Holmes' statements to police At the time of his arrest, Mattson told and the significance of the name Chico Law Times four officers approached him to the prosecution," Sproat said in his inside the coffee shop and warned him ruling. more officers were on standby. "To draw that inference would require The lawsuit accuses Torigian of fail- impermissible speculation on the part of ing to ensure the defendant officers were the trier of fact." "properly trained in investigative techIn his statement of claim, Mattson alniques and knowledge of the law they leges police "relied upon witnesses knoware expected to enforce." The police chief ing that the said witnesses suffered from authorized Mattson's mental health-issues arrest based on a flawed and/or past criminal investigation, the claim histories and they failed alleges. to diligently, fairly, and Although there's a objectively test the acmention of Mattson becuracy or veracity of ing "battered" by police, that evidence before there's no description acting." of a physical assault in As a result, the Crown the lawsuit. Brian Kelly, felt there was a case, the Mattson's lawyer, delawsuit maintains. "They clined to comment on prepared and created a the lawsuit. Crown brief that on its Mattson often apface was not a true repears in criminal cases flection of the facts and at the court across the 'It was very stressful in hindsight,' says Hal circumstances invesstreet from the coffee Mattson. tigated, which resulted shop where his arrest in the Crown attorney took place. Although the obstruction being satisfied that there was a reasonable of justice case eventually ended in his prospect of conviction." favour, he says the legal ordeal had an Following his arrest in 2010, he told Law impact on his reputation among "some Times he didn't like the public nature of the participants in the justice system." officers' actions that November afternoon. "It makes it difficult to deal with those "I thought it was unnecessary to arrest people," he says. "I mean, you have to deal me in a public place, put handcuffs on me, with them every day, right?" and hold me for 3-1/2 hours," he said. "PoIn his claim, he alleges the arrest "pub- lice have their tactics and I'm not sure why." licly humiliated" him and aimed to "deSince then, he says the arrest and charge mean the plaintiff in the presence of his have left him with stress, depression, and friends, peers, colleagues, clients, and the insomnia. "It was very stressful in hindpublic in general." None of the allegations sight. Now that it's over and I got a chance have been proven in court. to reflect on it . . . it was very stressful." In the 2010 case before Sproat, police Mattson, who has practised criminal claimed Mattson had a conversation with law for 28 years, said the ordeal gave him Tyson Holmes, a witness in a case that in- a glimpse of what his clients go through. volved five people accused of attempted "I have a new-found understanding murder and drug-related offences. of how people feel when they're being arDuring his chat with Holmes, police rested and put through the process I was," alleged Mattson convinced him not to he said after his arrest. identify the principal accused in the "Because we do the job every day, matter by his street name, Chico. They we just assume it's nothing. But having said he did so in order to undermine the been through it, I think there's a lot of prosecution's case. people who are in positions of authority Later, Holmes was hesitant to testify. who would gain a lot of understanding Mattson wasn't acting for any of the de- of how arrested persons feel if this hapfendants but had previously represented pened to them." Holmes in a different matter. The case involving the five accused The judge said the police lacked evi- individuals ended with three of them dence to back up their claim against the pleading guilty to aggravated assault. The lawyer. fourth person pleaded guilty to accessory "There is . . . nothing in the evidence after the fact and the charges against the to suggest [Mattson] knew about the fifth accused were withdrawn. LT Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1 According to Lapper, Homewood, which has 33 years of experience in providing assistance to professionals and numbers other professional associations among its clients, can service those needs. "Homewood is also a more cost-efficient way to go because ultimately we're probably going to pay less for what we believe is a significantly broader service." McLeod notes OLAP was created for the specific purpose of providing an independent buffer between lawyers needing help and the regulator. He maintains that any third-party provider under contract to the law society would be beholden to its paymaster and therefore wouldn't enjoy the same kind of trust from lawyers in need of assistance. OLAP, an independent, non-profit corporation, is the product of a merger in 2006 between what was then the Ontario Bar Assistance Program (OBAP) and the LSUC's employee assistance program that was previously administered by a third-party provider. OBAP had been operating independently since 1977, relying largely on lawyer volunteers, many of them recovering lawyers themselves. OLAP's board is composed of two LSUC representatives, two LawPRO representatives, four recovering lawyers, and a number of other lawyers' organizations, including the Ontario Bar Association, the Criminal Lawyers' Association, the Women's Law Association of Ontario, and the judges' counselling program. McLeod maintains that a third-party provider simply can't offer the type of peer-to-peer service offered by OLAP's 80 volunteers, many of whom are themselves recovering lawyers. "Among other things, OLAP supports lawyers when they feel the need to transition out of law because staying in the profession makes them physically sick," he says. Employee assistance "providers don't understand the legal culture and the importance of a lawyer's identity within the profession," he adds. "We help lawyers accept they're not a failure and help them navigate to another niche in law or transition out of law. We also help them connect with other lawyers." McLeod is also skeptical that a thirdparty provider will be able to recruit lawyers as volunteers. "Peer volunteers will not volunteer because they are themselves recovering anonymously and will not risk their own exposure to their regulator; they know the lawyer in trouble will resist help from a program controlled by their regulator and will not waste their time trying; and they will refuse to volunteer for a forprofit company," he says. Lapper, however, notes the law society intends to keep its current consultant, AON Hewitt, as a buffer between itself and Homewood. "So if we, as funders, have any concerns, it will be AON taking up the issue with Homewood to avoid any perception that we're getting information we shouldn't be getting," he says. The tension between the regulator and OLAP reportedly originated in 2008 when demand for OLAP's services rose and created a need for more funding. It culminated in November 2011 when a majority of OLAP's board sought to terminate the employment of the organization's first executive director. The law society and LawPRO objected to the termination and then resigned from the board when it occurred. "From that day on, the law society started controlling everything OLAP was doing, including setting up a temporary management oversight committee under threat of cutting funding," McLeod says. The growing involvement of the law society, however, was anathema to OLAP. It regarded a proper distance between the regulator and distressed professionals as core to the success of the peer-to-peer component of its program. Lapper says OLAP has been obstructive since 2010 when the LSUC began asking questions about rapidly escalating costs. "We wanted to know about what kinds and levels of service were being provided, but OLAP refused to provide any management information and characterized our requests as inappropriate," he says. McLeod says the question of terminating OLAP arose in June 2012 but notes the LSUC wouldn't respond to inquiries until after the benchers made their formal decision. "They've been stonewalling us from the beginning," McLeod says. "We had no idea who the provider would be and we weren't going to simply hand over our files to the law society because that would be a breach of our fiduciary duty of confidentiality to our clients." LT Reach one of the largest legal and business markets in Canada! www.canadianlawlist.com With more than 179,000 page views and 31,000 unique visitors monthly canadianlawlist.com captures your market With contact information for more than 56,000 legal professionals, more than 20,500 law offices, judges and government departments, canadianlawlist.com attracts more than 179,000 page views a month and 31,000 unique visitors! Online and in print www.canadianlawlist.com FOR mORe inFORmatiOn COntaCt COLLeen aUStin: 416-649-9327 • Fax: 416-298-5181 colleen.austin@thomsonreuters.com www.lawtimesnews.com CLL - Web - 1-4 pg 5X.indd 1 11/7/12 3:58 PM

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