Jeanine Farmer

The Law Society of Ontario appealed a decision of the Law Society Tribunal Appeal Division, which upheld a nine-month suspension for a lawyer convicted of possessing child pornography.

The appellant argued the original hearing panel lacked jurisdiction because it did not include a lay adjudicator, contrary to O. Reg. 167/07.

The Divisional Court majority agreed, finding the panel was improperly constituted and lacked jurisdiction, as there was no evidence the Chair exercised discretion to depart from the mandatory requirement.

The appeal was granted and the matter remitted for a new hearing.

The defendants brought a motion to strike the plaintiff's trial record and dismiss the action, arguing the plaintiff failed to comply with a pre-pandemic court order requiring the action to be set down for trial by June 30, 2020.

The plaintiff argued that the deadline was suspended by the provincial emergency regulation suspending limitation periods due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The court agreed with the plaintiff, finding that the regulation suspended the filing time and that the plaintiff had filed the trial record within the appropriately calculated extended deadline.

The defendants' motion was dismissed with costs.

The applicant sought directions from the Superior Court after an Assessment Officer determined he lacked jurisdiction to conduct a solicitor-client assessment.

The order for assessment had been obtained from a registrar outside the 30-day time limit prescribed by section 3(b) of the Solicitors Act.

The court held that while statutory timelines in the Solicitors Act can be treated as flexible standards, the applicant's failure to cure the jurisdictional defect despite being alerted to it years earlier prejudiced the respondents.

The court confirmed the assessment procedure was a nullity and awarded costs to the self-represented respondents.