Category Archives: Lawyer Defence
Beware of the chain-link limitation expiry
A lawyer phoned to tell me about a limitations matter. He said that if the case was time-barred, the time expired long before the client retained him. Then he told me there was a prior lawyer. I told him to report himself to the Ontario Lawyers’ Professional Insurer, LawPro, just in case. (Ouch!) Continue reading
Buttonholed by a family member?
“In times when access to justice is ever precious, isn’t it great to have a lawyer in the family?”
In the May Canadian Lawyer, the Accidental Mentor helps you navigate dealing with the clients you can’t completely fire.
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“Maintenant que l’accès à la justice soit si précieux, n’est-il pas terrible que notr’ cousin(e) est avocat(e)?”
Dans ma colonne de mai dans Canadian Lawyer, vous trouverez des conseils au sujet de l’interaction avec les clients que vous ne pourriez vraiment pas virer.
Unbundling the civil litigation retainer
“A significant proportion of middle-income Ontarians can afford to pay for some legal services. Developing innovative programs to harness this market, whether through unbundling, legal expense insurance, or other forms of subsidized legal services, would represent an important step forward.”
– Report of the Ontario Civil legal Needs Project, 2010, p. 56
(la version française suit)
Uncharted territory, albeit well-trodden
What is your experience so far with limited scope retainers, otherwise known as “unbundling”? At the moment, Ontario lawyers appear to be slow adopters of this mode of legal service delivery, at least with that label. Fingers crossed, no one has been successfully sued or disciplined for an error or omission in an “unbundled” retainer. Look up “unbundling” in the law reports or the Law Society of Upper Canada discipline decisions and you won’t find anything – yet. Continue reading
At least once in your career, it is helpful to reflect seriously about the place where the Law Society sends lawyers found guilty of misconduct and worthy of disbarment. Call it your general deterrence inoculation. Whatever it means to be a lawyer, this is what it means no longer to be one.
