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regional wrap-up VEXING VEXATIOUS LITIGANTS IN NOVA SCOTIA N ova Scotia has introduced legislation to deal with an irritant — lots of them. Bill 14, the amended Judicature Act, targets people who persistently start, or continue, court proceedings without reasonable grounds. "The objective is to provide the courts with clear jurisdiction to deal with the problem of vexatious litigation," says John Briggs, executive director and general counsel of the Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia. It has become a real problem, he says. It was the commission that originally tackled the problem — and proposed changes to Nova Scotia's legal landscape — with the release of its final report "Vexatious litigants." It recommended CENTRAL Lawyer to celebrities found guilty on 111 counts by Barreau du Québec Pages for years, local lawyer Claude F. Archambault's face might have been more appropriately plastered on the side of a milk carton as he seemed to have disappeared for many clients and creditors. One of the city's more flamboyant F criminal lawyers, once called Montreal's Perry Mason early in his 44-year career, Archambault was found guilty in September by the Barreau du Québec's disciplinary committee of 111 counts of appropriating funds and failing to place clients' money in a trust fund. The deci- sion involved approximately $160,000 in retainers from 26 clients between May 2002 and April 2007. Archambault, 68, is waiting to or a man whose mug appeared in an advertisement on the back cover of the Montreal Yellow appropriated money from his clients derogated the honour and dignity of the lawyer's profession," stated the damning 153-page decision handed down Sept. 2. "All members of this profession must meet this same requirement: a client's money shall be deposited and main- tained by the lawyer in a trust fund." Sixty-eight witnesses were heard find out whether he'll be reprimanded or disbarred under article 156 of the Professional Code. "The disciplin- ary committee has no hesitation in concluding that the respondent who 8 NO VEMBER / DECEMBER 2009 www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com over 11 days of hearings dating back to September 2008. One of the higher profile cases involved Senator Raymond Lavigne, who hired Archambault in 2003 to handle three civil lawsuits against some cottage-country neighbours who complained about Lavigne destroying trees near the shoreline of his Gatineau River property. The disciplinary committee report noted that Lavigne advanced Archambault $7,000 and agreed to get a adopting a statute that would explicitly empower the courts to make an order against a vexatious litigant. Such an order would prevent a vexatious litigant from starting any new proceedings or continuing with an existing proceeding until court leave was granted to lift the order. A balanced approach was advocated, one that would empower the courts to deal effectively with vexatious litigants but would also permit someone subject to a court order to seek leave to have the order lifted when circumstances change. The Department of Justice heeded 29 of the report's 31 recommendations. The government declined to define the term "vexatious" or to use a substitute. It also did not include all courts in Nova Scotia with civil jurisdiction, effective- ly leaving the province's Small Claims Court out of the mix. The new legislation should not weigh heavily on lawyers, says Briggs. "There is not a negative impact from a lawyer's point of view. It's very positive." It also improves access to justice, he notes. "Everyone is entitled to access but it does not mean you can abuse that right." Indeed, that right has been constrained by seven other provinces as well as the Supreme Court and Federal Court of Canada, all of which have vexatious litigant legislation. — DM