The British Columbia Law Society
This is the story of a senior counsel taking advantage of an unrepresented party and a Court that relied on the senior counsel’s expertise and experience to ensure that a just and proper outcome was achieved. When the senior counsel was called on his deplorable misconduct he doubled down and used every trick of his trade and every tool in his tool box to justify his misconduct. The result was protracted and costly litigation not only for his client but also the unrepresented party who was forced to retain counsel.
The citation
- Between September 2015 and March 2016, in the course of representing your client [SM] in a family law matter, you failed to discharge your professional obligations as an officer of the court by:
(a) misstating facts in court and/or failing to correct the record regarding the start date and end date of a pension division, contrary to one or more of rules 2.1-2(c), 2.2-1, and 5.1-1 of the Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia (“the BC Code”);
(b) abusing the court’s process by instituting a contempt application and a recusal application when you knew or ought to have known that the applications were unfounded, premature, and/or without merit, contrary to one or more of rules 2.2-1, 5.1-1, 5.1-2(a), and 5.1-2(b) of the BC Code; and
(c) drafting and relying on an affidavit of your staff which materially misrepresented the position of the pension plan, and the position of opposing counsel, regarding the requirement of a copy of the opposing party’s birth certificate, contrary to one or more of rules 2.1-2(a), 2.1-2(c), 2.2-1, 5.1-1, and 5.1-2(e) of the BC Code.
And
2. Between September 2015 and March 2016, in the course of representing your client [SM] in a family law matter, you failed to discharge your professional obligations to opposing counsel by:
(a) instituting a contempt application against opposing counsel personally, and a recusal application, when you knew or ought to have known that the applications were unfounded, premature, and/or without merit, contrary to rules 2.1-4(a), 2.2-1, and 7.2-1 of the Code of Professional Conduct for British Columbia (“the BC Code”); and
(b) communicating with opposing counsel in a discourteous manner, contrary to one or more of rules 2.1-4(a), 5.1-5, 7.2-1, and 7.2-4 of the BC Code.