Legal Ethics – Getting SLAPPed by Costs?

This paper was presented at the 2nd Annual Ontario Bar Association’s Maintaining Professionalism in the Municipal Law Context Program.

OVERVIEW

This paper will consider the advocates’ dual professional obligations, to the client on the one hand, and to the profession and to the administration of justice on the other in dealing with costs.

This paper will consider the Rules of Professional Conduct including Rules 2, 4 and 6 and such matters as: lawyer as advocate; the lawyer and the administration of justice; encouraging respect for the administration of justice; responsibility to the profession generally and to others; courtesy and good faith.

Are lawyers’ professional obligations impacted by Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (“SLAPP”) legislation? Do those professional obligations impose limits on the costs which can legitimately be sought against individual litigants or groups?

Download the PDF on the left to read the full paper.

Author
Related Categories
Core Areas