Vancouver, February 20, 2017 – The Law Society sets standards of professional responsibility for BC lawyers and articled students, and upholds those standards through a complaints and discipline process. These standards and processes are important to maintain public confidence and trust in lawyers. Accordingly, the Law Society has ordered that former lawyer Kerri Farion of Vancouver be suspended for 30 days starting March 1, 2017.
The Law Society found that Farion committed professional misconduct by failing to comply with an order related to a previous discipline hearing. Farion had previously been fined for failing to respond adequately to Law society communications. As part of that previous decision, Farion was ordered to provide material to the Law Society by a specified date. Farion did not dispute the fact that she failed to do so.
In its current decision to suspend Farion, the hearing panel considered that replying in a timely way, providing documents and cooperating during Law Society investigations are fundamental responsibilities of lawyers and that failure to do so has the potential to prevent the Law Society from performing its critical role of protecting the public interest.
The decision of the hearing panel can be found here.
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