When the rules were changed in the 1990’s in the UK granting extended rights of audience to solicitors, I had no difficulty believing what was so commonly heard on the street at the time – the independent profession of barrister was going the way of the dodo.

I spent a week in London last month mostly among trust litigation lawyers. Of them, about half were barristers and half were solicitors. It became clear to me that the profession of barrister is alive and well. And I think I know why.

It always struck me as odd why solicitors and the . . . [more]

Fees disputes commonly lead to unpaid accounts, Law Society complaints and/or malpractice claims. For these reasons you should do your best to avoid fee disputes with your clients. Here are some simple resolutions that will help you accomplish this:

• I will get a sufficient retainer at the start of a matter: At the start of the matter ask for a retainer that is sufficient to do all of the initial work on the matter. Ask for a retainer that will cover all the work – asking for less gives the client unrealistic expectations about fees and means you are

Further to our post on AvoidAClaim yesterday (Fake Toronto law firms tied to an international inheritance collection scam), we have discovered another fake Toronto firm and another fake firm purportedly in Ghana. All four of these firms have websites are all virtually identical. The names and URLs for the fake firms are as follows:

• Hubbel and Steven LLP hubbelsteven.com
• Vaughan and Palmer www.vaughanandpalmer.com
• Farrell Mallon and Co Solicitors farrellmalonlaws.com
• William Mensah Chambers williammensahchambers.com

Some of the text on these sites appears to have come from a national Canadian firm and a well-known Atlantic Canada law firm. Some of . . . [more]

In the spirit of the New Year, Resolutions and Top 10 lists, I present to you my predictions for the top issues that the legal profession in Canada will face in 2013. This was inspired by a discussion on the listserv of the Canadian Association for Legal Ethics (CALE) and in particular by contributions from Alice Woolley who started things off with a “Best of 2012” post that you can find here. Malcolm Mercer, Tom Harrison, and Richard Devlin, as always, expanded and enriched the discussion. Some of my “Top Issues for 2013” repeat Alice’s Top Issues in . . . [more]

The Superior Court of Justice of Ontario has issued a ‘protocol’ that will (as of February 1) allow lawyers, licensed paralegals, law students, self-represented parties, and ‘media or journalists’ to use electronic communications devices (broadly defined to include laptops and smart phones) in court without express permission. Naturally there are some conditions, including:

• don’t disturb the proceedings
• don’t distribute any information that is subject to a publication ban
• don’t take any pictures
• don’t distribute recordings (though lawyers and journalists may make recordings for their own use)

However, “Members of the public are not permitted to use electronic devices in the . . . [more]

• I will take the time to ensure the client understands my recommendations: Failing to effectively communicate with the client is just as much a claims pitfall in criminal law as in other areas. This could be because of the rushed nature of many “courthouse steps” conversations, or the fact that the lawyer’s years of experience on cases may obscure the fact that the client doesn’t fully understand the course of action the lawyer recommends. There is a risk that clients may later regret their choices and make a claim against the lawyer. To guard against this, be sure to

A couple of days ago Edward Adams of Bloomberg Law’s Behind the Headlines interviewed one-time Slaw columnist Jordan Furlong on the topic of recent mergers between Canadian and U.S. law firms. Most of Bloomberg Law is behind a subscription paywall, but there’s a lot of Bloomberg video goodness on YouTube, and in this case Slaw has been given permission to show you the twelve-minute video of this interview here in the website.

Even though he’s piped in via Skype (would Google Hangout produce better quality?), Jordan is as thoughtful and informative as ever.

. . . [more]

This is the text of an email fraud alert sent by LAWPRO to our insureds on December 21, 2012.

Just this week LAWPRO has dealt with two firms that were the victims of major frauds on their trust accounts. The time just before the holidays should not be a time for bad thoughts and frauds targeting lawyers, but unfortunately the fraudsters aren’t cooperating. We frequently see an increase in fraud attempts around the holidays as the crooks behind these frauds will actually use the distractions of the holidays to help them dupe lawyers and law office staff.

In one case . . . [more]

It seems funny to me that lawyers believe that we are complete masters of our own fate. We aren’t. Each province’s Law Society Act, which creates a monopoly for lawyers and allows us to be self-governing, was created and passed by the local legislature – and it can also be changed by the local legislature.

Now, if one looks at the current political environment across Canada we see a few interesting things.

British Columbia, Ontario and Nova Scotia will all likely go to the polls in 2013.

The Ontario Liberal party is in the midst of a leadership campaign that . . . [more]

Up until the Judicature Acts in 1873, lawyers in England and Wales practicing in the common law courts were known as attorneys-at-law, or attorneys for short. After this time they adopted the term solicitor, which was previously used for the courts of equity. Of course in Canada lawyers are both barristers and solicitors, although neither term is used much in common parlance.

Anthony Castelli of Circle of Legal Trust recently compared searches for “lawyer,” “lawyers,” “attorney” and “attorneys” using Google Trends in the U.S. and concluded,

…the obvious the word of choice to optimize for is attorney. In the United

I’ve written a few posts recently about access to justice and the current flaws in our system. In the past month those flaws have reared their ugly head in my practice.

1. Where are your Documents?

I act for the plaintiff. In mid-August I sent my client’s productions to opposing counsel and requested his client’s productions and discovery dates. Between mid-August and mid-November I followed up on eight separate occasions. I was given a variety of excuses that “the documents were coming” / “meeting with my client next week” / “should have them for you next week”. Alas, they never . . . [more]

By Darryl Singer

On September 28^th 2012, the Law Society of Upper Canada (LSUC) terminated, as of December 31^st, funding of the Ontario Lawyers Assistance Program (OLAP), an arm’s length/Chinese-walled service provider for 35 years to LSUC members suffering from alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, financial stresses, marital breakdown, stress, burn-out and a myriad of other personal and professional issues that impact a lawyer’s ability to properly practise law and serve one’s clients. Their replacing OLAP’s services with Homewood Human Solutions (Homewood) ought to be discomfiting to all members of our profession and the public. Why?

Because . . . [more]