Legal Blog

Solicitor’s Charging Order

Fancy Barristers, P.C. v. Morse Shannon, LLP 2017 Ont CA

Lawyer #1 retained lawyer #2 to assist in pursuing a personal injury matter that lawyer #1 took on a contingency basis. Lawyer #1 fired lawyer #2 without payment to lawyer #2 for its time and disbursements and without an undertaking to pay lawyer #2 once funds were received from the action. Section 34 of the Solicitors Act provides for a charge on property recovered or preserved through the instrumentality of a lawyer. The court held that it was not necessary that lawyer #1 had actually received the funds; it was sufficient that there was a chose in action for the funds. The court allowed the charging order to ensure that the fees and disbursements of lawyer #2 would be paid out of the eventual proceeds from the action.

Written by Jonathan Speigel Jonathan Speigel, the founding partner of Speigel Nichols Fox LLP, leads the litigation and construction practices.