Canadian Lawyer

Regional wrap-up Central YOU���VE GOT MAIL M ontreal litigator Catherine Pilon is behind a new initiative at the Barreau de Montr��al to encourage more Quebec lawyers to use e-mail for serving court documents to other lawyers on a case. The pilot project, launched in February, is designed to test the waters for proposed changes to Quebec���s Code of Civil Procedure that would formally allow for the delivery of different kinds of legal documents by e-mail. Right now court documents are only shared electronically if legal representatives from both sides consent. Otherwise, they are served by bailiffs, who have the authority to act as process servers in Quebec. Pilon, a litigator with the Montreal office of Dentons, said she made the pilot project one of her priorities during her one-year mandate as b��tonni��re of the bar association, which represents more than 13,000 Montreal lawyers, as an access-to-justice initiative and to encourage lawyers to be better prepared for the future. ���It���s already a fairly common practice for lawyers in class actions and insolvency matters to serve proceedings to Catherine Pilon is each other by e-mail once the initial prospearheading the ceedings have been filed in court,��� says pilot project. Pilon. ���I want to make sure more Montreal lawyers are used to it before the code comes into effect and that we can learn from their experience.��� She adds: ���There is a lot of concern about the cost and the efficiency of justice. If we can find a way to reduce some costs by doing this, then I think we are improving access to justice. The bar is there for the protection of the public, and if the public can have access to lawyers at a lesser cost ��� that includes the fees, but also the disbursements ��� I think we are all moving in the right direction. I also want to make sure our lawyers are technology-savvy and embrace notification by e-mail.��� To that end, the Barreau de Montr��al has invited lawyers working on 30 different cases ��� 10 family law files, 10 other civil cases before the Quebec Superior Court, and 10 civil cases before the Court of Quebec ��� to use e-mail for notification and report back on any difficulties. The project protocol calls for lawyers who participate to fill out a special form, which would be attached to initial court proceedings, thereby becoming an official part of the court record. That would also inform the court and the duty clerk that they will be communicating service documents by e-mail. Pilon and four other litigators also devised a checklist, with practical considerations like how to flag the subject line to make the notification stand out, the clear identification of file attachments in pdf format in the message, and tips on maximums for sizes of messages to avoid bounce-backs. ��� Kathryn Leger kathryn.leger@videotron.ca 8 April 2013 www.CANADIAN L a w ye r m a g . c o m ���DEROGATORY TO THE HONOUR OR DIGNITY��� OF THE PROFESSION N ew measures proposed by the Quebec Justice department would make it easier to take disciplinary action against lawyers and other professionals found to be complicit in cases of corruption, collusion, embezzlement, influence peddling, and fraud. Such nefarious activities are now to be specifically named as acts that are ���derogatory to the honour or dignity��� of a profession in the Code des professions, the law that outlines how Quebec���s 44 professional orders operate and regulate their 357,000 members, including the estimated 24,000 lawyers licensed to practise law in the province. Adding the specific offence to the professional code is imperative given allegations made before the ongoing Charbonneau Commission headed by Quebec Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau, said Quebec Justice Minister Bertrand St-Arnaud in Febraury as he introduced bill 17, the disciplinary justice reform project. Doing so ���clearly establishes the highly reprehensible nature of such acts,��� he said. Bill 17 also provides for a new organizational framework and beefed up overseer role for the Office des professions, the body charged with evaluating and monitoring mechanisms professional regulators have in place to ensure the competency and ethics of members. An office comprised of a maximum of 15 presidents of the disciplinary boards of different professional regulators will work full time under the administrative authority of a chief to reduce delays in the handling of complaints and ���to improve the quality and coherence of decisions rendered.��� As well, the bill calls for a new non-partisan selection process for candidates for the presidency of disciplinary boards, who would be named for a fixed full-time mandate of five years. Montreal lawyer Sylvain Lussier, who worked for a time as chief prosecutor for the Charbonneau Commission, says the changes contained in bill 17 will lead to greater protection of the public interest, one of the reasons the office and the professional code were established in 1973. The section of the law that states no professional may engage in acts derogatory to the honour or dignity of the profession has in the past been challenged by defence lawyers who claimed it was too vague, says Lussier, a litigator with Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. Naming corruption, collusion, embezzlement, influence peddling, and fraud as derogatory acts in the law ���makes it explicit,��� he says, adding greater oversight of disciplinary boards will bring more discipline and accountability to the process of disciplinary justice itself. ��� KL

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