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REGIONAL WRAP-UP Thompson Crown office a tough sell Manitoba Association of Crown At- torneys to staff its Thompson office. Association president Lisa Carson says it has had ongoing vacancies in the northern Manitoba community for six years. There are currently just two Crowns in Thompson — one of them started this spring — but there should be at least seven. The situa- tion is so dire, MACA regularly flies Winnipeg-based Crowns to the city of about 14,000 to handle the local circuits. "Crown attorneys working in S Thompson have the heaviest work- load in the province. Some of them have more than 500 files," she says. "The people who remain in that of- fice carry a heavier load because [Crowns] are continuously leaving. The position isn't made attractive enough to retain any qualified coun- sel in that office." Even new hires are forced to take on more than 300 files each in a baptism-by-fire that requires them to hop from emergency to emergen- cy rather than get the training they need. "They shouldn't have more than 100 files, probably closer to 50, and on lower-level matters so they can get their feet wet," she says. Carson says MACA is hoping the uffocating case loads, high stress, and low morale have made it virtually impossible for the provincial government can lend a hand. The association is preparing to make a recommendation to the minister of Justice that more Crowns be hired so the file workloads can be more reasonable. She says the bigger issue is the im- pact on the streets of Thompson. Not only might out-of-town Crowns not have the proper appreciation of lo- cal issues, but being swamped with files doesn't allow them to dedicate the amount of time necessary to each one to do a proper job. "That could translate to people not being behind bars long enough. The concern is al- ways there for the potential for mis- carriages of justice," she says. One of the problems facing MACA across the province, Carson says, is compensation. With an entry-level salary of $55,000 and a maximum of about $120,000, the money isn't enough to keep ambitious prosecu- tors from heading to greener pastures in Alberta and Ontario. She says a growing number are also finding ju- dicial positions more financially at- tractive. "We're losing Crowns with five to 10 years' experience to the bench. They're applying sooner than they otherwise would because the salary is attractive and [the bench] doesn't have the same morale issues," she says. — GK CENTRAL CANADA Downs proud of securities prosecution and rewarding case was successfully prosecuting arguably Canada's worst fi- nancial fraudster on behalf of Quebec's securities watchdog. Downs was hired by the Autorité E des Marchés Financiers (better known in both official languages as AMF) in March 2006 to proceed against Vincent Lacroix with the aid of its legal depart- ment. Lacroix, founder and former CEO of Montreal's now-defunct Norbourg Asset Management Inc., was charged by the AMF with 51 provincial Securities Act violations two years ago. He was ac- cused of bilking 9,200 investors of $115 million between March 2000 and Au- gust 2005. Quebec Court Judge Claude Leblond found Lacroix guilty on all charges last Dec. 11; then on Jan. 28 sentenced him HOW WILL THE BEST LAWYERS FIND YOU? RainMaker Group 110 Yonge Street, Suite 1101 Toronto, Ontario M5C 1T4 Tel: 416-863-9543 Fax: 416-863-9757 www.rainmakergroup.ca 10 JULY 2008 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com Untitled-8 1 6/9/08 2:02:49 PM ric Downs has been a defence law- yer for about 15 of his 20-plus-year career, but his most challenging