The Law Society of Upper Canada v
Abbott, 2017 ONCA 525, holds that delay in initiating
investigatory and disciplinary proceedings does not necessarily
justify a reduction in sanction.
Mr. Abbott was a real estate lawyer. In 2007, a lender client,
suspicious of mortgage fraud in one of Mr. Abbott's
transactions, made a complaint about Mr. Abbott to the Law Society
of Upper Canada. The investigation into the complaint was completed
in 2012, more than five and a half years after the complaint was
made. The hearing took place in 2014, approximately seven and a
half years after the complaint was made.
The hearing panel determined that Mr. Abbott engaged in mortgage
fraud and ordered that his license to practice law be revoked. The
appeal panel subsequently upheld the hearing panel's finding of
professional misconduct. However, pointing to the Law Society's
"inordinate and unacceptable delay" in investigating and
prosecuting Mr. Abbott, the appeal panel reduced the
