Law in Quebec

News about Quebec legal developments

Legal Practice Management

  • Code of Civil Procedure being overhauled

    A decade after reforming the Code of Civil Procedure based on the principle of proportionality, Quebec intends to overhaul it once again in order to establish a more rapid, more efficient and less costly civil justice that would improve access to justice and increase public confidence in the justice system.

    In an effort lauded by the legal community, Bill 28 aims to modernize and streamline the pre-trial process, trials and appeals, using collaboration along with proportionality as its guiding principle.

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  • Workplace privacy: “People don’t understand it”

    Workplace privacy, an issue few seriously thought about even a decade ago, has become a conundrum for employers. The ubiquitous presence of mobile technology, the explosive evolution of social media coupled with shifting and seemingly contradictory attitudes towards privacy as well as an evolving legal landscape have left in-house counsel in a quandary. Even outside of work, questions linger around the scope of employee privacy and the extent to which employers can keep tabs on employees.

    No wonder then when Borden Ladner Gervais LLP recently ran a seminar on workplace privacy in Toronto in the wake of a much publicized Supreme Court of Canada ruling that has divided privacy lawyers over its significance, the turnout out was nearly twice as much as expected.

    “Privacy is on people’s minds,” says Robert Weir, an employment lawyer who led the seminar.  “People don’t understand it, don’t get it.”

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  • Misappropriation of funds: The profession’s dirty little secret

    On an unusually warm and foggy Saturday evening this past December the $1.7-million home of Dany Perras was set ablaze, the third time in the space of a year an act of vandalism targeted the former Montreal lawyer. Perras, who resigned abruptly from the roll in October 2011, is under investigation by the Quebec Bar for allegedly orchestrated a multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme through his lawyers’ trust account. It’s been more than 16 months since the scandal that shook the Montreal legal community erupted, and the fallout is still being felt. Successfully petitioned into bankruptcy, Perras is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe and a host of legal proceedings – many of which are under court seal — launched by more than a dozen creditors seeking an amount surpassing $6 million.

    The Perras case is unique, and yet at the same time it is not.

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  • Women make up nearly half of the Quebec Bar’s roll

    Women make up nearly half of the Quebec Bar’s roll

    By 2021 more than half of lawyers in Quebec will be women, reveals the latest annual report of Quebec’s legal society.

    At present, women already make up nearly half of the Bar’s Roll of Order, with 11,838 members or 49 per cent of membership, the highest percentage in North America. On average women practising the profession are younger and have less experience than men. The 12,301 men who are currently practising are around 48 years old and have 21.6 years of experience, compared with women who are 41, with 14 years of experience.

    Young lawyers, those with less than 10 years of experience, represents 35 per cent of the total membership, according to the Barreau du Québec’s 2011-2012 annual report published earlier this month. And that’s where women are gaining ground on men — women make up 61 per cent of young lawyers.

    How and where women practice also differs from men. More than half of men, or 52 per cent, work in private practice, 16 per cent in the public sector and nine per cent in the private sector such as in-house counsel for companies. Women, on the other hand, shun private practice. Barely one-third or 32 per cent work in private practice. Nearly a quarter, or 23 per cent, work in the public sector, 12 per cent in the private sector, and a staggering 30 per cent are on either parental leave or sabbatical or studying.

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  • 73 Quebec lawyers suspended for failing to complete refresher courses

    Bernard Valcourt, federal Minister of Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, was one of three lawyers recently suspended by the Law Society of New Brunswick for failing to meet the minimum requirements for continuing education and professional development.

    In Quebec the number is far more imposing. According to the recently published 2011-2012 annual report by Quebec’s law society 73 lawyers were suspended for failing to complete at least 30 hours of approved training during a two-year compliance period. Seventy-two other lawyers were stricken off the roll for either failing to pay annual membership fees, failing to enroll or pay into the professional liability fund.The disbarred members will now have to pay a fee and submit a formal request to be reinstated, which will be examined by the bar’s readmissions committee.

    The Barreau du Québec’s syndic, or investigating officer, was kept busy. His department lodged a complaint with the disciplinary council against 57 lawyers and dismissed 1,443 others it investigated.

    The Barreau’s disciplinary committee rejected 17 complaints, found 27 respondents guilty and imposed sanctions in 31 cases.

    From April 1, 2011 to March 31, 2012, the disciplinary committee meted out

      • a suspension of three months or less in 30 cases;
      • a suspension of less than a year in 54 cases,
      • a suspension lasting between one and five years in 25 cases
      • a suspension from five to ten years in three cases.

    The disciplinary committee also imposed a fine of less than $1,000 in 10 cases and handed a fine of more than $1,000 in 19 cases.

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  • Face of the profession will change 10 years from now, predicts Quebec law society

    Quebec’s legal landscape, spurred by an ageing population, globalization and rapid advances in information technology, is expected to dramatically change by the turn of the decade, with white male baby-boomers making way for women and minorities battling over an increasingly specialized legal services marketplace, forecasts the province’s legal society in a revealing portrait of the profession.

    Over the next 10 years more than 6,100 new lawyers are expected to join the ranks of the Barreau du Québec for a total of 30,381, up from the current 24,225, representing a 2.3 per cent increase, according to a recently published 122-page report entitled “Lawyers in Private Practice in 2021.”

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  • 70 Quebec lawyers disbarred for failing to complete refresher courses

    When the Quebec law society introduced a mandatory legal education program two years ago, even noted Montreal lawyer Gérald Tremblay and head of the Barreau du Québec at the time admitted that “it was not a natural reflex for me to contemplate sitting behind a school desk.”

    Nor was it for 70 lawyers, more than half based in Montreal, who failed to complete the required training between April 1, 2009 and March 31, 2011. All were disbarred recently, including Montreal-based lawyer  Brent Tyler, best known for his various high-profile legal challenges to Bill 101, Quebec’s French Language Charter.

    Following in the footsteps of the Law Society of British Columbia, the Barreau du Québec introduced the continuing professional development program in April 2009, compelling all of its 23,000 practising lawyers to take no fewer than 30 hours of approved continuing legal education courses every two calendar years to remain in good standing.

    “Law is an evolving discipline, and it is important that people stay up-to-date,” Stuart Cobbett of Stikeman Elliott told me at the time the program was launched. “But life being what it is, some people just don’t pay attention to it. Therefore it is a good idea for any self-regulatory body to establish certain minimum continuing education requirements.”

    The disbarred members will now have to pay a fee and submit a formal request to be reinstated, which will be examined by the bar’s readmissions committee.

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  • Few number of claimants prompts questions over class actions

    Nearly three decades after class actions made their first appearance in the Canadian legal landscape, little light has been shed over the proportion of class members who make a claim, which hasn’t stopped some from speculating that the numbers are so low that they call into question the need for class proceedings.

    “Where there is money set aside for individual plaintiffs and they have to apply for the funds, anybody who did the research would find that there’s very little uptake and the funds that are unapplied for are given to charitable organizations,” asserts William Vanveen, a former assistant law professor at the University of Windsor’s faculty of law, now a partner with Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP in Ottawa. “The lack of application for relief to the funds by directly affected plaintiffs indicates to me that there isn’t a great social need for these actions.”

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  • New accounting rules making lawyer’s job tougher

    When a slew of Canadian organizations made the transition at the beginning of the year to an international financial reporting standard, lawyers faced almost overnight new ground rules that could prove to be burdensome, endanger solicitor-client privilege, and potentially prejudice defence in litigation cases.

    Misgivings arise from the way that unresolved legal claims, or “contingencies” in accounting speak, must be reported under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). IFRS, quite simply, imposes a higher threshold for identifying claims, takes a different approach to estimating the expected value of a claim, and has more extensive disclosure requirements.

    “I don’t see lawyer’s lives getting any easier with IFRS,” remarked Stephen Kerr, a partner with Fasken Martineau Dumoulin LLP, who practices general corporate and commercial law. “Suddenly we’re going to be asked to do a lot more, with a lot more precision and a lot faster.”

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  • Norbourg: Law firms seeking $11 million

    A couple of days after an agreement in principle was reached in the Norbourg class action suit, allowing thousands of investors to recover nearly all the money they lost in one of the biggest investment frauds in the country, a lawyer warned me that the case was far from over.

    That’s because the $55 million settlement against Quebec’s securities regulator, Northern Trust Co. of Canada, Concentra Trust, accountant Rémi Deschambault and accounting firms KPMG LLP and Beaulieu Deschambault did not cover legal fees. “The judge in the case has opened a can of worms,” told me the class action specialist. “It’s unheard of to reach a settlement without agreeing to the legal fees.”

    The lawyer is right. The law firms that negotiated the settlement are seeking $11-million, representing 20 per cent of the $55-million settlement, in legal fees — and the victims are not happy. Three Norbourg victims are expected to be in court today arguing that the amount is far too much, with one saying that lawyers should be receiving up to five per cent while another asserting that 6.5 per cent is reasonable. “It’s disproportionate,” said François Leblanc, an industrial relations consultant whose family lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in the Norbourg scandal. “In my opinion, 6.5 per cent of the settlement is a reasonable remuneration. They’re calculating $400 an hour, which would give them salaries of $700,000 a year.”

    Quebec Superior Court justice André Prévost is expected to render a decision by month end. “I am conscious that the Norbourg investors have lived through difficult times,” said the judge yesterday. “The conclusion is approaching.”

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  • Dealing effectively with pro bono clients

    When Mathieu Bouchard was recently faced with a pro bono client who was anxious about an impending court hearing, the Montreal lawyer resorted to a technique he successfully used in the past, and drew a sketch of the courtroom, illustrating where the judge, court officials and the parties would sit, and explained in plain language what to expect.

    “We may laugh but for someone who has never been to court it’s impressive and it can be very intimidating,” remarked Bouchard, a partner with Irving Mitchell Kalichman, at a seminar that explored ways to effectively manage pro bono legal work. “But if we can give them an idea as to what will take place before they set foot in court it can make a difference.”

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  • Law firms embracing project management

    Nearly three years ago, after sensing that clients’ expectations were shifting, with growing numbers becoming far “less patient” with the profession’s billable hour model, McCarthy Tétrault LLP began an unlikely undertaking for a law firm — and started evaluating the use of a discipline that has long been a staple in engineering and information technology to manage budgets and resources.

    Today, a year after launching its legal project management program at the beginning of 2010, McCarthy is beginning to take advantage of its jump start. At a time when many major North American law firms are just starting to explore the possibility of implementing legal project management programs, McCarthy recently unveiled an advertising campaign that seeks both to refresh their brand and enhance their image by rejuvenating their website and promoting its new project management approach, which they hope will draw new business and retain existing clients.

    “We’re highlighting our new brand, our visual identity,” said Richard Higa, the chair of the McCarthy Tétrault’s project management committee. “We think it’s important in our brand to get the message to the market that project management and cost management is something that we’re highly focused on – and we want to be the market leader. We think it’s going to provide us with a competitive edge.”

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  • Adjunct professors: Vital cogs of cash-strapped universities

    Michel Deschamps doesn’t have to teach. In much demand for his expertise in banking and finance and commercial law, the Montreal lawyer trots around the world giving conferences and participating in commercial law reform projects in the area of secured transactions when not taking care of his clients at the Montreal office of McCarthy Tétrault LLP.

    Yet for the past 37 years, Deschamps has been an adjunct professor at the Université de Montréal, teaching law students the complexities of banking law. Stellar pupils include the current dean of the Université de Montréal, and two generations of his family, including his daughter and his two sisters, one of whom is Supreme Court of Canada Justice Marie Deschamps.

    “It’s not as if I need the revenues from teaching to make a living but I continue to do it because I enjoy teaching and enjoy the exposure to students as they provide me with a window into perspectives of the coming generation,” said Deschamps, who seriously considered becoming an academic before being dissuaded by the dean of the faculty of law at his alma mater.

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  • IFRS spells changes for insurance contracts

    When the Finance Department introduced new transitional measures just before the Christmas holidays, it was welcome relief for life insurers coming to grips with a new standard introduced by the International Accounting Standards Board.

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  • New Anti-Spam law prohibits everything except for exceptions

    The new anti-spam and anti-spyware legislation has such a broad reach and is so complex that organizations that conduct business online will need to reassess their business practices for sending commercial electronic messages or face stiff new penalties that can go up to $1 million for individuals and $10 million for corporations for each violation, according to experts.

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Law in Quebec
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