Not all lawyers are rats!

Jeffrey J. Niederhoffer

Jeff Niederhoffer has left a new comment on your post, "Meet Ratso, B.A., LL.B. - on his way to work to commit fraud?"

In my experience, the Manitoba bar is less rife with examples of this kind than other jurisdictions. I can say, honestly and with a straight face, that during my time in private practice, I worked hard - damn hard - to have my hourly billings accurately reflect my time on a file. I think it's fair to say that the same is true of most other lawyers who practice on an hourly basis.

Clients are typically the most effective police of what you do as a lawyer. Clients have every right - ethically and legally pursuant to the Code of Professional Conduct - to have their lawyer justify their fees, and most will not be shy about doing this.That said, I'm not going to be naive about this. There ARE real abuses within the legal profession, in Manitoba and elsewhere - but typically they center around lawyers not keeping their clients fully informed or even occasionally (and usually inadvertantly) misrepresenting affairs.

The "usually inadvertantly" comes with a huge asterisk, because this to me is the most pernicious abuse that occurs among lawyers. There are lawyers in this province - they are well known in the legal profession - who have reputations for fleecing unsophisticated clients by conducting frivolous litigation. These lawyers will often promise their clients (who are genuinely ignorant and don't know to ask the important questions) the sky and the moon. When these lawyers fail to deliver, they are then in the position of having to come up with creative - typically fraudulent - explanations as to why this is the case. This cycle will be repeated again and again, at least until the lawyer loses all credibility, the client loses their money to the lawyer, or some intervening event outside of the solicitor-client relationship causes the client to come to a realization that they require new counsel. This is predictably a painful process, for both clients and counsel, and will invariably culminate in acrimony, fee disputes, lawsuits, and Law Society complaints.

I've heard of this happening, typically with unsophisticated clients who face the prospect of a financial windfall through litigation or, less typically, with unsophisticated clients who somehow already have access to substantial funds. Sadly, it is these clients who are the most victimized by the unscrupulous lawyer. It is they who frequently will be the most difficult to convince to retain new counsel, as they are forced into the position of admitting their ignorance and the fact that they were "taken."

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From personal experience lawyers Jeff Niederhoffer (jnieder@shaw.ca) and Anders Bruun (abruun@campbellmarr.com) are highly ethical, principled individuals of unquestioned integrity - real class acts! Jeff has temporarily suspended his practice of law while he recovers from a recent serious slip and fall accident.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk