Savone ats Law Society of Upper Canada
Posted May 5, 20162015 ONLSTA 26;Lerners acted for the Appellant in this appeal of a Law Society of Upper Canada disciplinary proceeding. The Appellant lawyer was found by the Hearing Panel to have knowingly participated in real estate fraud, the presumptive penalty for which was disbarment. The Appellant had acted only for the vendors in the impugned transactions, and the fraud was alleged to have been perpetrated on the lender. Although the Law Society had the files of the lawyers acting for the purchasers/lenders, it refused to produce them. The Law Society and the Hearing Panel then relied on the fact that the lawyer’s files were missing documents to support a finding of constructive knowledge of fraud. The Law Society Appeal Division allowed the appeal and ordered a new hearing based on the Law Society’s failure to meet its “high standard of disclosure”.