Lawyer’s misconduct finding upheld
Thursday, January 15, 2015 @ 7:00 PM | By Michael Benedict
Ontario lawyers who creatively skirt the Criminal Code prohibition against no-contest pleas risk professional discipline, according to the Law Society Tribunal, Appeal Division.
The “postscript” to a recent decision is in stark contrast to an earlier Ontario Court of Appeal judgment that found there is nothing inherently illegal about a person pleading guilty while maintaining his or her innocence. The apparent conflict between the law and professional rules of conduct puts lawyers, at least in Ontario, on the horns of a dilemma when clients wish to...
The “postscript” to a recent decision is in stark contrast to an earlier Ontario Court of Appeal judgment that found there is nothing inherently illegal about a person pleading guilty while maintaining his or her innocence. The apparent conflict between the law and professional rules of conduct puts lawyers, at least in Ontario, on the horns of a dilemma when clients wish to...