Jorge Barroilhet, a justice of the peace at Old City Hall, has been found guilty of judicial misconduct.
The Toronto Star recently reported that Barroilhet might be stripped of his duties after the conviction by a three-person panel organized by the Justices of the Peace Review Council.
Before his appointment as a justice of the peace in 2002, Barroilhet ran Stop All Traffic Tickets, a paralegal firm based at Keele and Eglinton in Toronto. Rathering than severing all ties with the firm once he became a JP, Barroilhet helped draft court documents and acted as a legal strategy advisor for Stop All Traffic Tickets. Barroihet also tried to help a friend who was conviced of careless driving by calling Brantford JPs and asking them to reopen the case.
It was this last action that was his undoing; Brantford JP Trillis Miller reported Barroilhet’s call to her bosses. Barroilhet admitted that the call was a judgement error, but that his “thick Spanish accent” may have caused his Brantford colleagues to misunderstand his intentions.
Barroilhet’s hearing will resume on Thursday, September 17. The panel has a number of disciplinary options, and it can also recommend to the Attorney General that Barroilhet be removed from office. According to the page about his hearing on the Ontario Court of Justice website, “a justice of the peace may be removed from office only by order of the Lieutenant Governor in Council.”
Photo by Sheila Thomson