Appeal Dismissed

The Ontario Law Society Tribunal Appeal Division dismissed an appeal of an attorney admitted in 2002 who had practiced construction law capably for many years who has been the subject of a capacity proceeding since 2019

In 2015, the appellant was terminated from his law firm employment as a result of erratic behaviour at work, including allegations that he made about undercover spies operating there and in his own family.

The appellant then commenced several proceedings before federal administrative bodies and Federal Court over the following years, seeking production, confirmation and compensation in relation to an alleged covert government campaign to recruit him into the security service. He believed the campaign was mounted by several individuals in his personal and professional life – his family, the firm that had employed him, several lawyers at that firm, friends and ex-girlfriends – as agents of the Crown associated with the federal government’s security apparatus.

The three orders before us on appeal are the latest in a long line of decisions by the Federal Court and the Hearing and Appeal Divisions of this Tribunal since Mr. Hutton commenced litigation in 2017. The Federal Court has made numerous rulings dismissing his motions and striking his pleadings as frivolous and abusive.

Disposition summary

The Lawyer appealed orders from the Hearing Division denying his motion for leave to issue several summonses; finding that he was incapacitated; and suspending his licence and imposing conditions relating to treatment and monitoring ‒ He also requested leave to submit fresh evidence ‒ The panel rejected his fresh evidence motion, finding that the evidence would not reasonably be expected to have affected the result in the Hearing Division ‒ It dismissed his appeal, finding that the Hearing Division did not err in its assessment of expert evidence, its overall finding on capacity or in its decision to reject his request for leave to issue a summons.

(Mike Frisch)