Law Society Rules in Canada

Status of the Law Society Rules and Codes: Overview

Compiled by Eric B. Appleby (2006)

The law society rules and codes do not have the force of statutes, regulations or judicial decisions. But the law society rules and codes do establish a standard of conduct for lawyers.

In the case of Ridge View Development & Holding Co. Ltd. v. Simper (1989), 95 A.R. 282 (Q.B.), the headnote stated: The Law Society of Alberta published a professional conduct handbook – The Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench stated that While I concede that propositions put forward in a handbook published by the Law Society do not by themselves have the force of a judicially accepted legal principle they are, nevertheless, clear and strong guidelines to all members of the Law Society of Alberta as to what are acceptable and recognized guidelines to practitioners should they choose to act in one of these situations. They are also at least one way of measuring whether a lawyer has lived up to the standard of care required .

Also the law society rules and codes do not have the force of statutes. In the case of Enerchem Shipmanagement Inc. v. Ship Coastal (1988), 83 N.R. 256 (F.C.A.), the headnote stated: The Federal Court of Appeal stated that neither the Ontario Rules of Professional Conduct nor (and still less) the Commentaries on the Rules can be treated as legislative texts. Nevertheless, they, and in particular the Rules themselves, generally embody the principles laid down by the courts over the years and must be treated with great respect – See paragraph 5.

In the case of Rosin v. MacPhail (1997), 85 B.C.A.C. 69; 138 W.A.C. 69 (C.A.), the British Columbia Court of Appeal stated at para. 16: [16] While the codes may be considered, they should not be applied as if they were statutory provisions governing the issue before the court. As Sopinka, J., said in MacDonald Estate v. Martin (1990), 121 N.R. 1 (S.C.C.), at para. 18: “A code of professional conduct is designed to serve as a guide to lawyers and typically it is enforced in disciplinary proceedings … The courts, which have inherent jurisdiction to remove from the record solicitors who have a conflict of interest, are not bound to apply a code of ethics. Their jurisdiction stems from the fact that lawyers are officers of the court and their conduct in legal proceedings which may affect the administration of justice is subject to this supervisory jurisdiction. None the less, an expression of a professional standard in a code of ethics relating to a matter before the court should be considered an important statement of public policy.”

But note that law societies are entitled to apply the codes in disciplinary proceedings against lawyers. In the case of Shaw v. Law Society of Prince Edward Island (1992), 101 Nfld. & P.E.I.R. 340; 321 A.P.R. 340 (P.E.I.T.D.), the headnote stated: The Prince Edward Island Supreme Court, Trial Division, stated that Law Societies were entitled to use the Code as a guide in disciplinary proceedings and that the Law Society, in stating that the lawyer’s conduct was contrary to the Code, was merely giving particulars of the alleged misconduct – See paragraphs 24 to 38.

Further it should be noted that law society rules of conduct do not affect the rights of clients. In the case of Stewart v. Canadian Broadcasting Corp. et al. (1997), 32 O.T.C. 321 (Gen. Div.), the court stated at para. 192: [192] “In my opinion, the rules and commentaries have two limiting features which are significant here: 1. The Law Society Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. L-8, gives the Law Society through Convocation the power to regulate lawyers’ conduct. The Act does not give Convocation the power to regulate clients or their rights. In any event, in the rules and commentaries relevant to the issues herein, Convocation has not attempted to regulate clients or their rights. 2. The rules and commentaries are not an all inclusive code governing lawyers’ conduct in every circumstance which may arise in professional life. They address only specific issues, and do so in a variety of ways ranging from mandatory to advisory.”

Resources

See also

Professional Conduct for Lawyer and Judges by Beverley G. Smith, chapter 1, para. 26.

Law is our Passion

This entry about Law Society Rules has been published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0) licence, which permits unrestricted use and reproduction, provided the author or authors of the Law Society Rules entry and the Encyclopedia of Law are in each case credited as the source of the Law Society Rules entry. Please note this CC BY licence applies to some textual content of Law Society Rules, and that some images and other textual or non-textual elements may be covered by special copyright arrangements. For guidance on citing Law Society Rules (giving attribution as required by the CC BY licence), please see below our recommendation of "Cite this Entry".

• APA
• MLA
• MLA 7
• CHICAGO
• OSCOLA

Usage Metrics

50 Views

Google Scholar: Search for Law Society Rules Related Content

 

Schema Summary

This entry was last updated: February 13, 2017