The Power of Courts to Award Costs Against a Lawyer Personally in a Criminal Proceeding
It is well-settled in Ontario that in a civil proceeding costs may be awarded against a lawyer personally by virtue of Rule 57.07 of the Rules of Civil Procedure . Indeed, this week in Nassab v. ErinoakKids , 2017 ONSC 2740, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (Divisional Court) ordered the lawyer for an unsuccessful judicial review applicant to pay the respondent’s costs, fixed at $50,000. The applicant's lawyer had, among other things, advanced wholly meritless positions and made serious allegations of impropriety on the part of the respondent with no factual or legal basis for doing so. And it was this week also that the Supreme Court of Canada considered costs awards against lawyers in a different context: a court's ability at common law to make a costs order against a lawyer in a criminal proceeding. See Quebec (Criminal and Penal Prosecutions) v. Jodoin , 2017 SCC 26 (CanLII). The Power of the Courts The courts have the power to maintain res...