Legal Research

One Example of Why Many People Dislike Lawyers

By David Cheifetz

or why some people suggest there was an even better reason for Sidney Carton meeting the fate he met.

 2010 ONCA 230 and 2010 ONCA 400. 

There are court proceedings whose existence is explicable (to me) only on the assumption that the client found a lawyer who would represent the client for a  fee that the client was prepared to pay and the lawyer prepared to accept. 

It’s my view – I know others disagree – that in this country lawyers who practice civil litigation are not ethically required to accept a brief just because it’s in their area of expertise and their clerk quoted an outrageous fee that, remarkably, the client agreed to pay.

I hope the successful defendant’s legal fees were borne by his insurer and wonder if that isn’t why the costs award was so low. If it isn’t, then there’s a subtext to the reason for the amount of the award which isn’t obvious.

Full post as published by Slaw.ca on June 02, 2010 (boomark / email).