Heads up, collection lawyers!
As you can see from the Law Society of Upper Canada's Discipline Committee's "Upcoming Hearings for January webpage," Deanna Natale's is scheduled for January 11&12. See Page 20 of 33.
http://www.lsuc.on.ca/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=2147484057
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DEANNA LYNN NATALE
From: Town of Markham, Ontario
First hearing: January 11 and 12, 2011
LSUC Counsel: Amanda Worley
Lawyer’s Counsel: Mark A. Lapowich and William M. Trudell
Particulars of alleged professional misconduct from the Law Society’s Notice of Application filed June 26, 2009:
1. You failed to act with integrity and good faith and encourage respect for the
administration of justice in the manner by which you used demand letters and draft statements of claim as part of your debt collection activities, in breach of Rules 4.01(6), 4.06(1) and 6.01(1) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
2. You failed to assume complete professional responsibility for your practice and failed to directly and effectively supervise the staff of your law office to whom collection activities were delegated, in breach of Rule 5.01(2) (old and new) of the Rules of Professional Conduct.
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This is a landmark case, at least for Ontario, in that collection lawyers will, from now on, think long and hard before making false legal threats including sending out misleading or phoney court documents. What are outfits like Pomer & Boccia and Global Credit and Collections gonna do now? Read on.
Legally speaking, these are minor transgressions compared with those of others on the docket, and so she'll likely only get a slap on the wrist. But she won't do it again - we hope!
The contraventions alleged by the LSUC (Rule 5.01(2)) are in agreement with those advocated by a previous blogger on this thread. The LSUC's Rules of Professional Conduct were updated since this thread began (back in 2007) so the breaches in Sections 4.01(6), 4.06(1) and 6.01(1) refer to the new Rules only.
What is needed next is enforcement with respect to collection agencies making false legal threats. In fact, they may dramatically increase because agencies and banks will no longer have collection lawyers in their employ to do it for them with impunity.
As long as Brian Pitkin remains head of the Debt Regulation Unit at Consumer Affairs, collection agencies can rest assured there will be no consequences for making illegal threats or breaking other rules of the Collections Act. The only solution is to make a request to the Office of the Premier for his resignation. Bloggers are welcome to complain on this, or any other forum, about their most loathed collection agency, but no one here has any authority to take action.
(Hint, Hint)
http://www.collection-calls.ca/mark-calls-resignation.html