Potential clients researching a lawyer’s record will now know about disciplinary actions much earlier than before.
In accordance with a motion passed at January’s convocation, the Law Society of Upper Canada is expanding the scope of information about lawyer regulation released to the public through its website.
The LSUC site now features a list of notices, backdated to January 1, 2010 and including the lawyer’s name and location, and the type of proceeding due to occur. (The pages listing current hearings and decisions have moved, and can now be found at a new URL.)
The notices list is preceded by this note: “Regulatory notices may contain allegations against a lawyer or paralegal. These allegations are not proven and will be considered by a hearing panel.” Listings will be removed once the matter is resolved.
The motivation for this change is best described in the Tribunals Committee’s January report to Convocation [PDF]:
The choice of the upcoming hearing date as the event used to trigger publication is not based on any public interest consideration. While lawyers and paralegals may wish to minimize the length of time that information about a proceeding against them is readily accessible, it is difficult for the regulator to justify the late stage in the process at which the information on the proceeding becomes readily accessible.