Top court’s
2010 track
record
Former judge gives back
to needy around world

PAGE 4

DISMISSING THE JURY
Judge deems case
too complex for jury
Dissension up but
Cromwell on ‘winning’
side every time
PAGE 8

BC OFFSHORE
DEVELOPMENT

Lawyers who want to know which way the wind is blowing at the Supreme Court of Canada should keep an eye on Justices Louise Charron, Thomas Cromwell and Marshall Rothstein.

That trio, along with Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, was on the “winning” side in more split decisions in 2010 than the other five members of the court, reveals an analysis of the judges’ voting patterns last year (see table on p. 23).

The Lawyers Weekly’s analysis discloses that the Supreme Court divided in 17 of the 51 judgments it rendered in 2010 (we counted companion appeals as one judgment). This means that the court was unanimous in about 67 per cent of the judgments it rendered—a drop from the average annual unanimity rate of 73 per cent that has prevailed since Chief Justice McLachlin took over the court’s reins in 2000.

The increased dissension last year is hardly surprising given that the court was wrestling behind the scenes with a handful of cases that had been on reserve for up to 18 months. The areas of contention included search and seizure, right to counsel, confidentiality of journalists’ sources, access to information and division of powers.

Noteworthy voting patterns emerge from the 33 per cent of judgments in which the judges divided last year (judgments that included concurring opinions are included in this figure).

See SCC Page 22

Ondine Snowdon is the spokesperson for a group of B.C. criminal lawyers who have withdrawn their services in protest.

JOHN VAN PUTTEN / THE ABBOTSFORD NEWS

BC criminal lawyers withdraw services
Development moratoria’s
murky legal nature

JEREMY HAINSWORTH VANCOUVER

yers who do duty counsel work.

She said that funding covers not only pay but also things such as getting experts for trials so Crown experts can be responded to as part of a proper defence.

“We deliberately did not sign up for January duty counsel shifts,” Snowdon said. “The Legal Services Society had advance notice of this.” Snowdon said it is becoming harder and harder for lawyers to take the shifts as the tariff is effectively shrinking as costs rise.

She said there needs to be a balance between Crown and defence.

“A lot of us do this on a prin-
cipled basis,” she said. “We
believe there should be access to
justice…but our hands are tied
in terms of what we can afford to
do for clients.”
She said protesting lawyers
have often found themselves
“working for ridiculously low rates.

“Countless hours written off… that will never be compensated,” she said.

The B.C. attorney general’s
ministry referred the issue to the
Legal Services Society (LSS)
which confirmed a handful of
lawyers had not signed the duty
counsel roster for January.
LSS executive director Mark
Benton told The Lawyers Weekly
Jan. 5 he empathizes with the con-
cerns of the lawyers involved but
says he has yet to hear from them
directly about their concerns.
The LSS doesn’t believe the
withdrawal is going to impact the
court system in the two commun-
ities as lawyers from the Victoria
firm of McCullough, Blazina,
Dieno and Gustafson have stepped
into the breach for the time being.
Snowdon is not happy about
other lawyers stepping in, saying it
waters down the effect the protest-
ers were trying to have.
“It was our hope no one
would fill the void,” she said.
“It’s most unfortunate.”
Further, Snowdon says, she’s
had messages of solidarity from
other lawyers around the province.
“I’ve got a lot of feedback
from all over the province,
expressions of disappointment
at another firm stepping in,” she
to protest lack of funding for duty counsel

See Withdrawal Page 7

PAGE 13

NAMES

The withdrawal of duty-coun-
sel services by more than a dozen
lawyers in B.C.’s Fraser Valley is
part of a larger systemic problem
that the head of Crown Counsel
Association of B.C. says is a “tick-
ing timebomb.”
Samiran Lakshman says the
withdrawal of services combined
with the lack of judges and court
time is creating a dysfunctional
system which has some lawyers
advising clients they can get
acquittals due to delays.

Ondine Snowdon is the spokesperson for the group of lawyers who haven’t put their names on the duty counsel roster for January.

She told The Lawyers Weekly about 15 to 20 lawyers from the cities of Abbotsford and Chilliwack met in December and decided it was time to take action to get the government’s attention over the disparity between the funding available for Crown and for defense law-

Lawyers make celebrity
names work for them

PAGE 19

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