August 15, 2019
Ken McEwan and Eileen Patel, acting on behalf of the Law Society of British Columbia, successfully defended a ‘Blencoe’ application to have a citation against a lawyer dismissed on the basis of delay. A panel accepted their argument that an investigation which spanned a period of five years was not inordinate, as the length of the investigation was spent in conducting appropriate investigations and awaiting the results of court proceedings. The panel also dismissed the lawyer’s application to dismiss the citation insofar as it related to comments allegedly made by the lawyer on the basis that the alleged conduct was not a marked departure from form the conduct the Law Society expects of a lawyer. They accepted the argument that a panel does not have the jurisdiction to dismiss a Citation prior to a full hearing on the merits, establishing a precedent for future applications to dismiss. The matter will now move to a hearing on the merits.