Judge bars woman from ‘pretending’ to practise law

Self-described trailblazer denies she was paid to give legal advice

In the halls of Regina’s provincial courthouse last fall, a woman approached Christopher Wilson and offered him a deal.

“She told me that she could save me money by having her deal with my criminal matter rather than paying a lawyer to do it,” Wilson wrote in an affidavit.

It was Aug. 10, 2016, and Wilson was in court for his first appearance on a theft charge. He lived in Saskatoon, and driving to Regina for future court dates was inconvenient. The woman, Ksenia Hudym, said she would do it for him — for a fee.

They met at a Tim Hortons to discuss their arrangement.

“She took $300.00 in cash from me during that meeting,” reads his affidavit.

Hudym appeared in court for him once. Then on Oct. 27, she didn’t show up. The judge issued a warrant for his arrest. He was picked up in Saskatoon, and spent three days in jail.

Wilson’s statement is one of seven affidavits filed by the Law Society of Saskatchewan, which recently sought — and won — an order to prevent Hudym from practising law. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Jerome Tholl forbade her from practising at the bar, collecting fees for legal advice and “pretending or holding herself out to be a legal service provider.”

“Ms. Hudym is not a lawyer and is not allowed to represent people in court for a fee,” law society counsel Tim Huber said Thursday. “The activities of Ms. Hudym, an uninsured, unqualified and unregulated individual, have placed members of the public at risk.”

Hudym claims to be a paralegal, educated through a program in Hamilton, Ont. But Huber told the Leader-Post there is no record of her ever getting licensed as a paralegal in Ontario. In Saskatchewan, paralegals are not regulated, and are not allowed to charge fees for legal services.

Hudym played other roles during the fall of 2016, according to the affidavits. She allegedly told a Crown prosecutor she worked for Regina’s Open Door Society, helping newcomers navigate the court system. But a society representative told the Leader-Post that Hudym has never worked as an employee there, and has never been associated with the agency.

She has also never been a courtappointed liaison with the province’s domestic violence courts — but she allegedly played one last fall during a run-in with a complainant. Tara Kovacs said “red flags” went up when she got a call from Hudym that September. Kovacs had just gotten a nocontact order against Kovacs’s exboyfriend, Jean Badroodunkhan. She claimed Hudym passed herself off as an “intermediary or liaison” affiliated with the court.

“She appeared to be attempting to facilitate some form of mediation,” says Kovacs’s affidavit. “She was interested in obtaining my consent to an amendment to Mr. Badroodunkhan’s conditions of release.”

In fact, Hudym was representing the interests of Kovacs’s exboyfriend.

Hudym readily admits she was working with Badroodunkhan. In a Facebook interview with the Leader-Post, she said she was trying to help him reclaim documents stuck at Kovacs’s place.

“I only acted on the verbal and would never force anything,” Hudym said, adding she was “merely just attempting to mediate the obtaining of the guy’s immigration documents that she was withholding.”

She calls herself a “trailblazer,” who advocated for those frightened by an “unforgiving court system.”

Hudym denies she was ever paid to give legal advice. She maintains she has worked as a paralegal for 12 years, but took time off due to illness.

She said she was paid to “stand in” for the people she worked with, asking for adjournments and requesting court documents. She insisted anyone can do that.

But Huber said that’s simply wrong. Anyone can appear as an agent for someone facing charges, he explained, but only lawyers can charge a fee for that service. He added that agents are not allowed to negotiate for their clients, as Hudyk apparently did while working with Badroodunkhan.

He also pointed to one case where a former client alleged Hudyk did provide legal advice. Uti Oghenekohwo met Hudym through friends, and contacted her for legal assistance on an assault charge last year.

His affidavit says she asked him for $500. He transferred her $400.

“My understanding was that Ms. Hudym would represent me in my criminal matter for the duration of the proceeding,” he wrote.

“Ms. Hudym provided me with

advice in connection with my criminal charge. She told me not to plead guilty to the allegations. She said there would be trouble if I did.”

Hudym denies that, saying that she merely told him she could get the matter moved to another court. She said that she led him to Legal Aid for further assistance. When pressed, she admitted that she advised him to maintain his innocence “as a friend.”

In his affidavit, Oghenekohwo also claimed that he called Hudym right before a December court date. Like Wilson, he said he was left to fend for himself. Hudym said she’d been in an accident and was “no longer prepared” to represent him.

“I felt abandoned by Ms. Hudym,” he said. “I viewed this matter as being very serious. I was upset that she would not represent me when I had already paid her to do so.”