When the Law Society of B.C. disbarred former Victoria lawyer Malcolm Zoraik last week for fabricating evidence in a court case he lost in 2009, it was only the second disbarment of a local lawyer since 2000.
The other lawyer subjected to the most severe penalty by the self-regulating profession was James Douglas Hall. He was disbarred in 2007 for 11 counts of professional misconduct, including filing a trust report with false information, practising law while suspended and deliberately misleading a client and another lawyer.
The society has disbarred 19 B.C. lawyers this century out of more than 10,000 lawyers provincewide, but it gets plenty of complaints and metes out other forms of discipline.
Of 864 complaints closed by the society last year, 33 per cent were resolved without further action and 48 per cent were out of the society’s jurisdiction, unprovable or withdrawn, according to the society’s 2012 annual report. The society sent 134 complaints to its disciplinary committee.
“Our role is to protect the public,” said society communications manager Robyn Crisanti. However, a complaint does not necessarily lead to an investigation.
The society “will open an investigation as soon as we become aware of a credible allegation against a lawyer,” added society communications officer Ben Hadaway in an email, noting names of those making the allegations are kept confidential. “Sometimes we get complaints from a lawyer’s client, and sometimes we get complaints about lawyers from other lawyers. We can also open investigations as a result of news reports, court decisions or judges’ comments.”
Family-law practitioners receive more complaints that other legal specialists because of the high level of emotional investment their clients have in the proceedings, Crisanti said. So do lawyers who practise on their own or in small firms where less self-policing or infrastructure is available.
Disciplinary records for Vancouver Island lawyers show several violations were punished in recent years by the Law Society of B.C. Among them:
• In a report issued March 18, 2013, Victoria lawyer Roger Dwight Batchelor was ordered to pay a fine of $3,000 and costs of $1,000 for professional misconduct in attempting “to buy himself out of the law society’s complaint process.”
In 2009, one of Batchelor’s clients filed a complaint about his service and fees. The society’s investigator found insufficient evidence of professional misconduct but raised concerns about the $11,000 payment Batchelor arranged for the client to drop her complaints in 2011. The legal profession needs to know there is “no tolerance for undermining the society’s investigations by negotiating a withdrawal of complaints,” the decision said.
• A report issued March 6, 2013, found that Victoria lawyer Crystal Irene Buchan engaged in professional misconduct in not responding promptly to the society’s requests for information about a complaint. Buchan, who was dealing with several serious health issues in her family, did not contest the facts, was fined $3,000 and was ordered to reimburse costs of $1,000.
In July 2012, a client complained that Buchan had failed to reply to communications in a timely manner. Buchan was given until Sept. 19 to respond. But she did not respond to followup questions by the society for more than three months. Buchan told the society she was unable to deal with the requests given her personal circumstances. Buchan’s husband has serious disabilities and her mother was terminally ill. The conduct review subcommittee empathized with Buchan but noted she was able to deal with other correspondence.
• Brian John Kirkhope of Nanaimo was disciplined for dishonourable conduct in a report published Jan. 31, 2012. Kirkhope arranged a $20,000 mortgage for his law firm to be paid from half the proceeds of the matrimonial home his divorcing client expected to receive. The client said he was unable to pay for Kirkhope’s legal services.
Kirkhope arranged the mortgage despite having drafted a restraining order preventing anyone from accessing the family asset without a court order. When the wife’s lawyer argued that the mortgage was invalid, Kirkhope told the court that he had forgotten the restraining order. The panel fined Kirkhope $4,500 and $3,000 in costs.
• Alan James Short of Parksville will require monitoring until Jan. 31, 2014, following a disciplinary report issued in 2009 when Short admitted appearing in court while impaired by alcohol on several occasions. The law society received complaints in 2006 from a court official and another lawyer, resulting in Short’s suspension. Short was found guilty of professional misconduct and ordered to be monitored by his physician until Jan 31, 2014. He was also ordered to pay costs of $7,000.
• Jeremy Stuart Gordon Donaldson of Victoria was called to the bar in 1991, resigned in 2008 and agreed not to apply for reinstatement until July 30, 2018. In June 2003, Donaldson admitted professional misconduct for collecting $26,250 in PST and GST from clients that he failed to remit. In 2006, he acknowledged unpaid PST of up to $10,000 was used for his employees’ salaries and other expenses. He also admitted to “pre-taking” fees before completing work in 13 separate client matters, the decision said.
• Harry Djorgee of Victoria was called to the bar in 2001 and suspended for six months in 2008 for professional misconduct and assessed costs of $1,000. He wrongfully affixed signatures not belonging to two clients to court documents and filed these falsely sworn documents in the Victoria Registry of the B.C. Supreme Court. The documents were not used in court and Djorgee did not gain financial benefit from them.
• In May 2009, Victoria lawyer Doug Christie, who died March 11, lost his appeal to the society’s 2007 ruling of professional misconduct in connection with three subpoenas the society said were issued improperly in 2003. A hearing panel found that Christie had altered the subpoena called Form 21 to appear to compel recipients to provide documents, when recipients only needed to bring documents to court for a judge to decide admissibility.
Christie was ordered to pay $20,000 in costs and a fine of $2,500.
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Law Society of B.C. provides online resource for looking up lawyers’ history
Based on data for the most serious cases over the past three years, up to three lawyers are reprimanded, nine to 15 are fined and four to 10 are suspended in any given year.
The Law Society of B.C. says that it is generally successful in collecting fines and costs assessed against lawyers because the ability to retain membership in the society, and therefore practise as a lawyer, hinges on payment.
Anyone who wants to check whether a lawyer has a discipline history with the Law Society of B.C. can visit http://tinyurl.com/mj3rffr and enter the lawyer’s last name.
Another avenue is Lawyer Lookup at http://tinyurl.com/k8t38ws.
