The Lawyers Weekly - August 20, 2010

THE LAWYERS WEEKLY
August 20, 2010 | 3

Law societies may relax confidentiality rules to prevent fraud

CRISTIN SCHMITZ OTTAWA

Canada’s 14 law societies are considering relaxing their stringent confidentiality rules to allow lawyers to blow the whistle on clients who may be poised to commit fraud, or otherwise unlawfully inflict “substantial financial injury,” on individuals.

This summer an advisory
committee of the regulators’
national coordinating body, the
Federation of Law Societies of
Canada (FLSC), proposed a draft
model rule of conduct that would
permit lawyers to set aside their
time-honoured professional duty
to keep client information confi-
dential “when the lawyer believes
on reasonable grounds that there
is an imminent risk of…substan-
tial financial injury to an individ-
ual caused by an unlawful act
that is likely to be committed,
and disclosure is necessary to
prevent the injury.”
The proposal to amend the
umbrella group’s Model Code of
Professional Conduct (an ethical
code which is purely advisory)
stresses that any such disclosure
would be discretionary — not
mandatory — and that lawyers
could only disclose as much con-
fidential information as required
to prevent the anticipated finan-
cial injury.

KEYCITE® — CANADA’S ONLYCOMPLETE LEGISLATIVE CITATOR ALL THE ESSENTIAL PIECES FOR UNDERSTANDING LEGISLATION Only KeyCite® goes beyond statutes to offer a complete legislative Citator service. KeyCite gives you Rules and Regulations plus International Treaties and Canadian as well as Foreign Legislation. Narrow your results by key terms using KeyCite Locate. Use KeyCite Alert to track and receive e-mail notification of new developments in selected legislation.