Legal Profession Regulation

General Principles

The regulation of lawyers is a matter in the provincial domain. The legislation for each province is as follows:

↑ ON: LSO v. Zaitzeff, 2021 ONLSTH 108 (CanLII), at para 31 ("Section 33 of the Law Society Act, RSO 1990, c. L.8, provides: “A licensee shall not engage in professional misconduct or conduct unbecoming a licensee.” Pursuant to the definition in Rule 1.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct (the Rules), “conduct unbecoming” means “conduct, including conduct in a lawyer's personal or private capacity, that tends to bring discredit upon the legal profession including, for example, … committing a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer's honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer.”")
↑ Batchelor (Re), 2013 LSBC 9 (CanLII), at paras 24 to 30

There are factors to consider for an adjournment:^[1]

the purpose of the adjournment (relevance to the proceedings, necessary for a fair hearing);
has the participant seeking the adjournment acted in good faith and reasonably in attempting to avoid the necessity of adjourning;
the position of other participants and the reasonableness of their actions;
the seriousness of the harm resulting if the adjournment is not granted;
the seriousness of the harm resulting if the adjournment is granted (to the other participants, etc., including the length of adjournment required);
is there any way to compensate for any harm identified;
how many adjournments has the party requesting the adjournment been granted in the past; and
was the hearing to be peremptory, and if so, were the parties consulted in selecting the date and were they advised of its peremptory nature.

see also Baker (Re), 2023 CanLII 98517 (NL LS), LSO v Oti, 2023 ONSLSTH 141, LSO v Lulic, 2023 ONLSTH 159, Re Guo, 2023 LSBC 41.

↑ De Lange (Re), 2022 LSBC 35 (CanLII), at para 14 ("In both Welder and in Law Society of BC v. Hart, 2019 LSBC 39 the panel cited the following non-exhaustive list of factors to be considered for adjournment motions as set out in Macaulay & Sprague, Practice and Procedure Before Administrative Tribunals, (Toronto: Thomson Carswell, 2004):...")

The respondent has a right to notice of a hearing. However, absent statutory obligations, there is no right be present at a determination hearing.

Reasons of health will normally need to be substantiated and connected with their inability to participate.^[1]

Rule 21.06 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure permits hearsay on interlocutory suspensions.^[1]