A Victoria lawyer who was found guilty of public mischief and of fabricating a letter alleging jury tampering has been disbarred.
Malcolm Zoraik was convicted in June 2010 in relation to a case in April 2009 in which he represented the plaintiff in a lawsuit involving a motor vehicle accident.
After a 20-minute deliberation, the B.C. Supreme Court jury found no liability on the part of the defendant.
Zoraik applied to have the judgment set aside and the matter was adjourned.
But before the matter could be heard, an envelope containing a letter was found on a counter beside the court registry.
The letter purported to be from the husband of an unidentified juror in a civil action similar in description to the motor vehicle case and alleged his wife had been offered money for her vote. The letter was in fact written by Zoraik.
A provincial court judge sentenced Zoraik to six months’ house arrest and 12 months of curfew. He appealed the conviction, but the B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.
On Monday, the Law Society of B.C. issued a press release saying that the society’s board of governors had conducted an investigation and decided to summarily disbar Zoraik, forgoing the need for a formal citation and citation hearing.
The decision to deal expeditiously with the matter was made after the benchers noted the “seriousness” of Zoraik’s misconduct and the significant threat it posed to public confidence in the justice system, the society said.
“Zoraik has now been ordered disbarred, the public has been protected by the fact that the Law Society obtained a written undertaking from Zoraik in June 2010 that he would not engage in the practice of law.”
Zoraik had been practising law for seven years at the time of the offence and had an otherwise unblemished record.
He argued that his misconduct was an isolated act and that he and his family had suffered sustained humiliation and economic “disaster” and that the sentence imposed on him had been enough of a specific and general deterrence.
The society regulates B.C.’s 10,000 lawyers.
