B.C.’s legal profession regulator has suspended a Nanaimo lawyer for misconduct after finding he was in a conflict of interest representing people in citizenship disputes and for mishandling their trust fund accounts.
The Law Society of B.C. suspended James Leslie Straith for two months starting May 1.
An April 20 society decision said Straith failed to identify who his client was when he provided legal services to the ‘Lost Canadians’ group, consisting of those who believe they were unfairly excluded from Canadian citizenship.
He was found to have been in a conflict of interest by representing one group member in a judicial review and by failing to ensure that she knew she was entitled to his undivided loyalty while he was also taking instructions from the leader of the group.
He was also found to have provided advice to the leader that conflicted with the group member’s interests when that leader decided to change lawyers.
Further, the panel also found Straith had breached trust and other accounting rules when handling funds received from the group’s members and supporters. The panel found a pattern of breaches throughout his retainer (for which he was paid $10,000) from 2012 to 2015.
The panel found Straith did not keep proper records and accounts, and that he deposited payments into his general account rather than into his trust account, when the funds should have been treated as trust funds.
When the retainer was terminated, Straith began a civil action against the group leader to collect on a bill that was never finalized, signed and delivered to the client and that did not take into account all funds he had already received.
“He never provided a full accounting of all funds received to his client and did not finalize and issue a proper bill, which prevented his client from challenging his account and ask for the return of overpayment in fees,” the society said.
In ordering the two-month suspension, the panel considered the serious nature and gravity of the misconduct and the need for general deterrence.
Straith had practiced law for 26 years.
At the time of the hearing, he was a practising member but he retired and terminated his law society membership effective Jan. 1.
Straith was ordered to pay costs of $22,523.79 before Sept. 1.
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