Originally published on Slaw.
A lawyer who sued her former client for $3,937.50 for unpaid legal fees has had $7,000 in costs awarded against her, and the matter has yet to reach trial.
In the lawyer's Small Claims Court lawsuit, she was ordered to produce her entire file to the former client and make production of the documents in chronological order, such that it could be ascertained whether or not she had in fact produced the entire file.
For reasons that are not entirely clear, the lawyer failed to produce the file in chronological order. A Deputy Small Claims Court Judge awarded costs against the lawyer in the amount of $2,000.
The lawyer brought an application for judicial review of that decision to the Divisional Court. Unfortunately for the lawyer, the Divisional Court had no jurisdiction to hear her application which resulted in her application being dismissed and an additional $5,000 in costs being awarded against the lawyer.
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