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Lawyer Debt

• My retired parents have been taken for a ride by a lawyer. Do they have any recourse? (Location: Ontario, Canada) My elderly father was wrongfully terminated from his last job. My parents weren't particularly interested in doing anything about it, but a lawyer friend-of-a-friend talked them into it being an obvious, open and shut case, and referred them to an extremely reputable, big-time colleague who handles this kind of thing. They're a smaller client than this colleague lawyer usually deals with, but he seemed extremely enthusiastic about what a slam dunk this was and hard-sold them into filing the lawsuit, specifically insisting that paying him on contingency would be crazy and it would be much cheaper to pay for his time as they go. As soon as it became clear that my father's old employers were fine with dragging this out long-term, the lawyer's interest in the case disappeared, even as the expenses began snowballing. Emails and phone calls are never, ever responded to, deadlines are seemingly missed. Years have now passed with no progress, and their rare contact with him is consistently, weirdly rude and insulting, with odd remarks about how the case might be going better if they were paying him more. They now owe this lawyer about as much as they could hope to get from a victory, with no end to the case in sight and a victory seeming increasingly unlikely, judging by his palpable disinterest in the case. They're now having to decide whether to take out a loan to pay for the case to continue to the next step (a non-binding mediation, they think? But the lawyer won't respond to their messages to explain what exactly this new expense is, just that they need to pay it?) or call it a sunk cost and walk away, knowing that they'll be paying off their debt to him for much of the rest of their lives. It doesn't seem like there's a lot they can do - they signed a contract, took a gamble, it didn't work out, it happens. It's not even like the guy is shady, probably! Just kind of a dick! And, I mean, the guy is a lawyer. It's not like they're going to take him to small claims court and get a good result. But hearing my Dad talk about how he can't sleep at night worrying about the money, how this is the biggest regret of his life is breaking my heart. Is there any contingency for people like them? Anything they can do to walk away from this mistake? Again, this is Canada, Ontario.

• Answer:

  It's worth giving The Law Society of Upper Canada a call to see if they can offer any options or recourse. I practice in the field of attorney regulation, and in my jurisdiction, their attorney may have breached some Rules of Professional Conduct. But this attorney isn't in my jurisdiction, and I'm not as familiar with Ontario's RPCs or what recourse your parents may have. Anyway, here is the contact info: Complaints Services The Law Society of Upper Canada Osgoode Hall 130 Queen Street West Toronto, Ontario Canada M5H 2N6 (800) 268-7568 (416) 947-3310 Fax: (416) 947-5263 Website: www.lsuc.on.ca/with.aspx?id=1063