Hearings are expensive processes for all parties. Respondents of course bear the expense of legal fees associated with their defence. Regulatory bodies wear two hats and therefore bear the double-whammy of both prosecution expenses, and tribunal expenses in the form…
In 1987, BC courts found that a regulatory body could not discipline a former member where its enabling statute (there the Psychologists Act, R.S.B.C. 1979, c.342) did not provide for an express power over former members: “If this extraordinary power…
The Ontario Superior Court confirmed the established legal principle that a court has no power to award the costs of a disciplinary hearing where the hearing panel’s decision is set aside on a judicial review. The court distinguished the situation…
Upon an inquiry committee referring a matter for discipline, prejudice from investigative delay does not make judicial review at that point less premature. Further, if the discipline committee (and the entire Board) have been exposed to a “mediation agreement” relating…
The importance of discipline panels issuing reasons that adequately support each finding of misconduct, and that stay within the four corners of the citation, was recently illustrated by the Alberta Court of Appeal granting the appeal of a social worker,…