Diamond slow to hand over documents, law society says
Ontario’s legal regulator has been stymied for months in trying to investigate high-profile personal injury lawyer Jeremy Diamond, the Law Society Tribunal has been told.
Documents filed as part of a disciplinary hearing for Diamond on Monday reveal that since October, the lawyer has been under investigation by the Law Society of Upper Canada for allegedly “failing to adequately inform clients” about referral fees, “charging unreasonable referral fees,” “engaging in improper/misleading advertising” and “failing to properly supervise” his staff.
But for months, Diamond failed to hand over documents showing the amounts of referral fees coming into his firm, in addition to numerous other financial documents requested by the law society, according to affidavits filed by a society investigator and forensic auditor.
Lawyers are self-regulated in Ontario and must turn over financial details about their practices to the law society when requested.
That brought Diamond to a hearing Monday at the tribunal on University Ave. to face allegations that he didn’t co-operate with a law society investigation that began in October, and is ongoing.
In May, the law society said that in addition to not co-operating with its investigation, Diamond failed to maintain required financial records — an allegation that was withdrawn after the lawyer provided the requested information.
The law society alleges that it took 10 months and considerable effort — including four separate letters — to compel Diamond to provide it with documents detailing his referral fee operation since October 2013, including a complete listing of all referral fees received and paid, dates of payments and where the money was coming from.
A Star investigation published in December found that the Diamond & Diamond firm had for many years been attracting thousands of wouldbe clients and then referring cases out to other lawyers in return for sometimes hefty fees. The Star found that clients were often unaware of the referrals and associated fees. Diamond & Diamond has told the Star that it has a growing roster of lawyers who handle cases in house.
Diamond & Diamond’s marketing, which has included women in tight T-shirts and ads above urinals at the Air Canada Centre, has raised the ire of the law society, clients and some lawyers.
At Monday’s hearing, law society lawyer Nisha Dhanoa argued that the society’s October 2016 request for information was “abundantly clear” and if any confusion existed, it was resolved by early 2017 when the society explained in more detail the records it required. She told the hearing that it wasn’t until June, after the law society alleged professional misconduct, that Diamond handed over financial information that got to the “heart” of what the society wanted.
“It was no mystery what the law society was looking for,” Dhanoa said.
She told the hearing that Diamond initially told the law society he did not keep the kinds of records it was seeking. However, she said that changed in the spring when Diamond said he kept a form of the required information. She said that Diamond’s “contradiction” in answers demonstrates that he wasn’t “acting in good faith.”
Dhanoa also pointed out that Diamond had a professional obligation to keep books and records in a format dictated by the law society and should have been able to provide them when asked.
Diamond’s lawyers, Robert Centa and Kris Borg-Olivier, told the hearing their client didn’t try to hide anything, and didn’t fully understand what the law society was asking for until early April. Once Diamond understood, he complied with the law society’s request and turned over the requested information and documents, the lawyers argued.
His lawyers said the investigation was “complex,” “unique” and interconnected with other investigations into two other lawyers at the firm — Jeremy Diamond’s wife, Sandra Zisckind, and her brother, Isaac Zisckind. (The law society is keeping details of these investigations confidential.) The lawyers argued that the investigation into Diamond was constantly evolving, as were the demands of the law society.
“There may have been a failure to communicate. There was not a failure to co-operate,” Centa told the hearing. “This was a complicated investigation and it may have taken more time than the law society wanted.”
“There was no attempt to hide anything. All of the information was put forward,” he said.
At the conclusion of Monday’s hearing, Law Society Tribunal adjudicator Raj Anand said “you’ve given me lots to think about” and reserved his decision. The law society could not say when a decision would be made.