Two Foul Odours
A tawdry affair has recently come to light where a law firm located in Vancouver, Dohm, Jaffer and Jeraj, is being investigated for malfeasance/malpractise by the Law Society of British Columbia. This law firm was engaged by the Catholic order, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in New Westminster, B.C., to look after their interests in settlement claims related to Indian Residential Schools abuse claims.
Former residential school students had charged the Oblates operating schools across the province with abuses against the human rights of their former students. Over a period of time, after the final closing of the last school in 1984, most of the hundreds of claims were settled. Throughout the process of litigation, the law firm had billed the Oblates quite sensationally high rates for legal tasks performed.
Support staff who worked on the various cases were billed at between $75 to $100 an hour; even a receptionist at the law firm had time billed at $65 an hour. The senior partner in the law firm charged at the rate of $450 an hour, while the junior partner billed at $200 an hour. On occasion billings represented 24-hour workdays. The Oblates, who take a vow of poverty, found themselves truly struggling in poverty to pay these excessive billings.
They sought the services of another law firm to determine whether the billings were legitimate, whereupon the initial law firm simply demanded that the Oblates continue to pay: "Now that the lawyers have been here ... you will do the right thing and pay our bills in full immediately", the senior lawyer wrote to the Oblates. Finally, the Oblates, finding themselves in a deficit position, filed a lawsuit.
The documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court charged that the law firm had billed the B.C. Oblates in excess of $6.7 million, representing $5.1 million in legal fees from January 2000 to December 2004, for work related to settling the claims of 200 individuals, former residential school students who suffered sexual or physical abuse while under the Oblates' care. Discharging the moral and legal obligations of the Oblates at an obviously exorbitant rate.
While the law firm and the Oblates have since reached a settlement, the Law Society of B.C. is continuing its investigation, concerned that the senior partner of the law firm, none other than Senator Mobina Jaffer (The Senate of Canada) and her son, Mr. Jaffer-Jeraj, "engaged in excessive and inaccurate billing of the client and failed to fully inform a client about their retainer".
The second half of this story of miserable human conduct is that the former Oblates administrator, Father James Jordan, who launched the investigation into Senator Jaffer's law firm's inordinately questionable billing practises, having left his administration position some two years later, was arrested in 2009 and charged with one count of possessing child pornography.
Former residential school students had charged the Oblates operating schools across the province with abuses against the human rights of their former students. Over a period of time, after the final closing of the last school in 1984, most of the hundreds of claims were settled. Throughout the process of litigation, the law firm had billed the Oblates quite sensationally high rates for legal tasks performed.
Support staff who worked on the various cases were billed at between $75 to $100 an hour; even a receptionist at the law firm had time billed at $65 an hour. The senior partner in the law firm charged at the rate of $450 an hour, while the junior partner billed at $200 an hour. On occasion billings represented 24-hour workdays. The Oblates, who take a vow of poverty, found themselves truly struggling in poverty to pay these excessive billings.
They sought the services of another law firm to determine whether the billings were legitimate, whereupon the initial law firm simply demanded that the Oblates continue to pay: "Now that the lawyers have been here ... you will do the right thing and pay our bills in full immediately", the senior lawyer wrote to the Oblates. Finally, the Oblates, finding themselves in a deficit position, filed a lawsuit.
The documents filed in B.C. Supreme Court charged that the law firm had billed the B.C. Oblates in excess of $6.7 million, representing $5.1 million in legal fees from January 2000 to December 2004, for work related to settling the claims of 200 individuals, former residential school students who suffered sexual or physical abuse while under the Oblates' care. Discharging the moral and legal obligations of the Oblates at an obviously exorbitant rate.
While the law firm and the Oblates have since reached a settlement, the Law Society of B.C. is continuing its investigation, concerned that the senior partner of the law firm, none other than Senator Mobina Jaffer (The Senate of Canada) and her son, Mr. Jaffer-Jeraj, "engaged in excessive and inaccurate billing of the client and failed to fully inform a client about their retainer".
The second half of this story of miserable human conduct is that the former Oblates administrator, Father James Jordan, who launched the investigation into Senator Jaffer's law firm's inordinately questionable billing practises, having left his administration position some two years later, was arrested in 2009 and charged with one count of possessing child pornography.
Labels: Heros and Villains, Human Fallibility, Human Relations
posted by Pieface | 6:56 PM
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