A court has ordered the Law Society to reconsider a request for compensation made by a victim of a disgraced and disbarred former defence lawyer, according to a report by CBC News. The decision reopened the question of whether the victim could be paid through a fund meant for people harmed by lawyers.
The victim, Leanne Aubin, had successfully sued the former lawyer, James Bowie, who owes her more than $250,000 after she took him to court for extortion, death threats and defamation. The judgment left Bowie owing a large sum tied to his conduct toward her.
According to the coverage, Aubin's legal team says it is hard to imagine she will ever be able to collect that money from Bowie. For that reason, they turned instead to the Law Society, asking it to provide compensation through the fund it runs.
The Law Society had refused the request, but the court set aside that refusal. The decision to overturn the Society's refusal was described in the coverage as a win for anyone who has experienced sexual abuse.
The fund at the centre of the case is one that covers criminal and other misconduct by lawyers. The dispute turned on whether it could be used to compensate a victim in a situation like Aubin's.
In its decision, the court clarified for the public and for the Law Society that the Law Society does in fact have the jurisdiction to give this sort of compensation in a case like this. According to the coverage, that point had never been pronounced on before by the court.
Kat Owen, a director of the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, said the court ordering the Society to reconsider Aubin's request gets survivors closer to meaningful justice. She said there is a real shortage of meaningful legal responses to the harms that survivors suffer, and that the ruling was an important step forward in terms of access to justice and legal remedies.
The Law Society is now reviewing the court's decision. According to the report, it can either reconsider Aubin's request or seek leave to appeal from Ontario's highest court, leaving the next step in the case still to be decided.