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Firm Taking Too Long to Register Residential School Abuse Claims

By Kim Pemberton
Vancouver Sun
May 1, 2012

http://www.vancouversun.com/Firm+taking+long+register+residential+school+abuse+claims/6544070/story.html

Firm taking too long to register residential school abuse claims

A Calgary law firm with 4,100 clients seeking compensation for abuse in residential schools is taking too long to register some of their claims, a court-ordered investigation has found.

The investigation found Blott and Company has not yet registered about 1,400 of the claims, even though a government-imposed deadline to do so before September of 2012 is looming.

The findings of the three-month long investigation, made public Monday in B.C. Supreme Court, included a recommendation that Blott and Company no longer be able to represent clients under the Independent Assessment Process for Indian residential schools survivors seeking settlement packages from the government.

The investigation also found that in some cases, Blott and Company claimants were charged “criminal interest rates” of 20 to 60 per cent for loans in anticipation of the compensation awards.

The investigation found that while the law firm did not give out the loans itself, it helped facilitate them, even though doing so was against the rules of the Settlement Act and the Federal Financial Administration Act.

“The evidence is uncontradicted. Forms [for loans] were signed at the office of Blott and Company and witnessed by staff,” said Lou Zivot, the lawyer acting on behalf of the monitor assigned by the court to investigate the firm.

B.C. Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown was told interest rates charged to vulnerable clients were not only “exorbitantly high” but clients were also charged additional administration costs as high as 20 per cent.

As well, some clients never received the full loan payouts, with one woman being shortchanged $8,000, court was told.

Zivot said while the loans were not directly made by Blott and Company, the firm’s involvement with them “led to an unconscionable and exploitive event.”

Outside court, Zivot explained that some clients would seek loans of $20,000 to $40,000 from lending companies, which included Bridge Point Financial and Settlement Lenders.

He said another company called Funds Now Inc. would refer them to a loan company and charge the claimants a finder’s fee of 20 per of the loan, which was later reduced to 10 per cent.

The court also heard that Blott lawyer Kim Deslandes had personally invested $20,000 into Funds Now.

Deslandes described herself to the monitor investigating Blott and Company as an “independent contractor” for the law firm, but the Law Society of Manitoba listed her as an associate with the law firm.

Zivot said in court that Deslandes “profiting in terms of the loans” arranged through Funds Now was “at best poor judgment.”

The chief adjudicator in the settlement agreement process, Daniel Ish, said Monday outside court that the court-ordered investigation should serve as a “wake-up call” to about 200 lawyers representing Individual Assessment Process clients across Canada.

“I think it’s important for all lawyers who represent clients in the IAP to know that the standards of conduct and professionalism is not lower here than anywhere else but higher because of the vulnerability of the claimants, who are often elderly, from rural areas and often not well-educated,” he said.

Contact: kpemberton@vancouversun.com

 

 

 

 

 




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