Are you looking for the BC Code of Professional Conduct? The Law Society of BC is the regulator for the legal profession in British Columbia.

It regulates who can provide legal services. Further, it tries to protect the public interest. 

If you want to be a law firm, you need to follow their professional conduct rules. Also, the Law Society (LSBC) operates a lawyer’s insurance fund.

It is one of the regulatory bodies in Canada that controls the practice of law. If you hired a lawyer in BC, then your lawyer is regulated by the LSBC.

This article will explore how you can use LSBC to protect your rights. Further, it will explore if the Law Society is pushing legal innovation enough.

Regulatory bodies sometimes make people afraid to try any innovation.

Encourage People To Get Legal Advice

The LSBC has started thinking about how to get more people to use lawyers and paralegals. They have released a request to the public for suggestions.

There is a massive amount of data that suggests that many people are not using lawyers.

In addition, there is a lot of data saying that people without lawyers struggle to get the court orders that they want.

Some of these legal issues are lawsuits, divorces, or inheritance battles.

The main reasons why people don’t hire a lawyer are as follows:

1. They think it’s too expensive
2. It’s easier to avoid the problem (in their mind)
3. They have a hard time knowing how to find the right lawyer (this is what ClearWay Law solves)

Understanding the BC Code of Professional Conduct: An Overview

The LSBC has created a team of staff that will look into how to change the rules. It is likely they will do tests to see what works. Companies can submit the kind of projects they want to try.

It is likely that immigration consultants, divorce coaches, and accountants will likely submit proposals.

It is also very likely that paralegals will try to get some power in the legal industry.

In Ontario, paralegals can take on many simple legal matters. In BC, paralegals are not allowed to do anything.

Also, the paralegals must take a one-year course.

In BC, there is no requirement to become a paralegal. Any lawyer in British Columbia can simply say a legal assistant is a paralegal.

BC Code of Professional Conduct

If a lawyer violates the code of conduct, what can I do?

If a lawyer fails to show up for a hearing several times because of mental health problems, the client might be able to use the lawyer’s indemnity fund.

The lawyer would have to pay their deductible and surcharge.

45% of lawyers experience mental health during some time during their careers. The legal industry is extremely stressful.

Key Principles: Upholding Ethics and Integrity in British Columbia

During COVID-19, many lawyers started using alcohol more than they should. Lawyers should not let things get away from them.

The LSBC has been working hard on how to deal with lawyers’ mental health problems.

There is now a “lawyers assistance program” for BC lawyers. It’s a confidential process to help lawyers in British Columbia.

You can even use the service if you are simply unhappy.

There is no cost for these services. You can also use certain programs at the LSBC that can help if you need counselling.

This can include marriage help.

Law Society of British Columbia

Lawyers struggle with customer service.

COVID-19 forced 20 years of legal innovation to happen in two weeks. The law society was forced to allow lawyers to do over video conferencing for the first time.

The legal profession always needs to balance the rules with people’s right to .

 Lawyers solve problems for their community. ClearWay Law has always loved how lawyers can help people with their hardest problems.

Lawyers need to always start with the customer and build from there. The person who needs a lawyer will tell you what they want.

Duties to Clients: Establishing Trust and Confidentiality

ClearWay Law wants to build a better way for lawyers and people in need of legal services to connect.

 There are things we wish we could do, but we can’t because of the BC code of conduct.

In places like China, Russia, and other countries, a lawyer can pay a non-lawyer 20-30% as a referral fee to send them business.

This helps law firms connect with the kinds of clients that they want to serve.

In many countries, an online marketplace for legal services (like ClearWay Law) can sell some legal products.

The Law Society’s main purpose is to make sure that lawyers don’t harm their clients.

When someone is dealing with a legal issue, there is a lot at stake.

BC Code of Professional Conduct

Let’s say someone has been arrested and charged with rape. They need to know that their lawyer is working hard to get them off.

If the lawyer doesn’t end up caring about the case, there needs to be some way for the client to complain.

And that’s where the Law Society comes in.

But what the LSBC cares about most is making sure that no money ever goes where it wasn’t meant to.

Imagine how much money real estate lawyers manage. In places like Victoria and Vancouver, homes can easily go for millions of dollars.

Lawyers Can Have a Lot of Money In Their Trust Accounts

A $2M home is no longer a mansion in these BC cities.

So when’s real estate buyer hires a Victoria BC lawyer, the buyer will need to transfer $2M to the lawyer.

Now imagine that the real estate lawyer currently has ten real estate closings going on.

That could mean that they have $20M in their bank account.

And banks trust law firms. So if a lawyer suddenly wanted to transfer $20M to a bank account in the Cayman Islands, the bank would probably do it.

For this reason, the LSBC requires their lawyers to get insurance, which is managed by the Law Society.

Running Off With The Client’s Money

If this horrible situation happened, which has happened in BC before in Richmond BC, then the insurance company (in theory) would pay out $20M to the clients.

What happened in the Richmond BC case is that $7M was transferred from a trust account to China.

The two people who were involved in the fraud worked at the Richmond BC law firm.

Then they ran off to China with $7M…

I don’t believe the money was ever recovered. I assume the clients got their $7M back.

But there have been a bunch of lawsuits and Law Society investigations, citations, and rulings because of it.

There was also a case in Victoria BC where a lawyer was disbarred because of some trust account issues.

The amount of money at stake wasn’t a lot, and it seemed the client consented.

But still, the Law Society felt the client had been taken advantage of.

You don’t want to mess with the LSBC as a lawyer. Most lawyers in British Columbia are terrified of getting a letter from the Law Society.

We Can Help You Find A Lawyer In British Columbia

 If you need to find a lawyer, you can fill out the form on the side of this page. You can also use our booking system below. Pick a time and date and we will have a lawyer call you.

This might include flat-fee pricing for a marriage agreement or separation agreement. Once someone paid $1100 for a separation agreement, we would have a lawyer do the work and send it to the client.

Because of current LSBC rules and the code of conduct, we are not allowed to do this.

BC Code of Professional Conduct

How is lawyer conduct different in other countries?

In the United Kingdom and Australia, non-lawyers can own shares in a law firm. This has allowed law firms to bring business people into their management teams.

This has led to massive technological improvements. Further, law firms started to focus on the customer experience for the first time.

We want Canada to push forward to be more like the . Most people in Canada do not hire a lawyer when dealing with a legal problem. We want to improve the market.

However, we need to work hand in hand with the law society to do so. Our company has reached out to them many times. We have not heard back from the Law Society Of BC with the exception of their social media team.

Law Society Rules of Professional Conduct

 If you are looking for a lawyer directory for BC lawyers, you can find it here.

We want to push forward in innovative and great ways. On the consumer side, we need to think about who pays the legal bills. It’s the customers who pay the lawyer.

Having a better system for listening to them is important. Law Society Of BC member services needs to do more to help lawyers earn money.

Relationships with Third Parties: Navigating Conflicts and Interests

The Law Society is available if you need to file a complaint about a lawyer. These complaints are often about trust accounts. Lawyers must account for every penny in their trust accounts.

The Law Society will not often get involved in disputes about fees.

If a lawyer says they did 10 hours of work and charges $350/hour, you can expect a bill of $3500.

Sometimes the LSBC will get involved if a lawyer makes a big mistake. Keep in mind that losing a case does not mean that the law firm made a mistake.

A mistake might be if they failed to show up for the first day of trial.

Law Society Of BC Cares Mostly About Trust Accounts

 Even if the lawyer misses a hearing, the law society mostly cares about trust accounts. They also regulate lawyer marketing, but it doesn’t seem they put many resources into it.

We have seen many law firms refer to themselves as the “best lawyers.” This is against the law society’s rules, but they don’t seem to be punished.

 If you are looking into the Law Society Of BC member services or code of conduct, go to the Law Society website. If you need lead generation services, contact us.

BC Code of Professional Conduct

  You can review the lawyer complaint procedures by Googling the Law Society. Also, keep in mind the law society has had a backlog of files for years.

It might take them 24 months to deal with a dispute between a client and their law firm. They do not have the resources to quickly deal with issues. Right now there are also a few year delays in front of the law society tribunal.

If you are concerned with your lawyer and you want to know if they violated the code of conduct, reach out to the LSBC. 

In conclusion, feel free to reach out to the Law Society of BC if you need help dealing with your lawyer. If you are looking for a lawyer, make sure to do your research before hiring one.

Look at reviews online. You can also reach out to us and we can recommend a lawyer.  If you have questions about the BC Code of Professional Conduct, contact the LSBC.

Law Society Rules

The Law Society Directory helps you find out if a lawyer is registered with the law society. The rest of this article will be directed at lawyers who are curious about the law society rules around directories and referral services.

First of all, we are not a referral service. We are an online marketplace for legal services.

We are not a law firm, and therefore the law society prevents lawyers from paying us referrals. Our company does not charge referral fees.

Referral fees are fee-splitting between lawyers that depend on how much the client is billed.

For example, a 15% referral fee. We sell leads to lawyers. We offer a fixed-fee marketing service for lawyers. It is not tied to fees paid by clients and we do not market a “firm” or lawyers collectively.

BC Code of Professional Conduct Practice Advisor

The interpretation is of this wording somewhat unclear. We have a vested interest in keeping up to date with the rules that clearly demonstrate that lawyers are permitted to pay for leads.

We don’t get any percentage of what the lawyer bills.

Clearway Law just sells leads, just like Google and Facebook. We built this model this way based on expert advice. We have nothing to do with referrals and fee-splitting. It’s not our business model.

We have had lawyers speak with a practice advisor from the BC Law Society on the interpretation of the Code of Professional Conduct.

Legal Profession Act BC

All lawyers and clients should also be aware of the Legal Profession Act of BC.

You can read it here. We also explained it below.

The point of the Act is to regulate lawyers and the Law Society.

The Legal Profession Act covers how the Law Society of BC is to be organized.

It talks about benchers, meetings, and elections. It also talks about how Law Society committees are to work.

The Act then goes on to explain how the LSBC rules should be put together, and which rules need membership approval.

BC Code of Professional Conduct: Raising the Bar for BC Professionals

Part 2 of the Legal Profession Act of BC talks about the practice of law, and what you need to do to have the authority to practice law.

It also explains how lawyers from other provinces (and also countries) can practice law in British Columbia.

Division 2 of the Act covers the topics of enrolling as a lawyer or getting reinstated.

The Act talks about articled students and how fees are to be shared for annual fees and practising certificates.

Part 3 of the Act talks about how complaints from the public about law firms should be dealt with.

It also covers suspensions, sending letters to the chief judge, and practice standards.

We don’t want to cover all the Act parts here. You can read the Legal Profession Act of BC if you are curious.

If you are not a lawyer, then it’s probably not that helpful.

Fee Splitting With Non-Lawyers Not Allowed

She confirmed that lawyers are not allowed to fee split for referrals. I then asked if a referral is interpreted as the same thing as a lead.

Fee-splitting is a red herring. I want the law society to focus on more important issues, like improving access to justice.

We don’t offer the Law Society Directory on our website, but we have our own way of finding a lawyer.

Law firms are going to have to find better ways to get clients. They cannot continue to struggle financially.

Lawyers also have to become more realistic about how much marketing costs.

BC Code of Professional Conduct And The Law Society Rules

There are a lot of rules for the BCLS. There are ten different parts to the rules. They break down in the following way.

Part 1- Organization (how the BCLS is to be set up)

Part 2- Authority to practice law (what you need to do to remain a lawyer, how to stop practicing and give up your license)

Here’s a fun fact that we found in Part 2. A judge has to stop practicing law for three years before they can work as a lawyer again.

Because of this rule, it’s unlikely that many judges in BC would ever go back to representing clients as counsel.

I am guessing the rule exists to protect the justice system from any favour a recently retired judge has with the other judges.

I assume all the judges know each other well if they work in the same courthouse.

It’s also possible that one judge could hate another.

Part 3- Talks about how to file a complaint against a lawyer and how the confidentiality of complaints works

Talks about how lawyers can advertise their law firms.

Talks about indemnification, which means that lawyers need to carry insurance at all times

This section is about how lawyers deal with court orders and going bankrupt (it happens all the time)

It’s a very long section about how trust accounts are to be managed by lawyers in British Columbia. It also talks about client property.

Also talks about trust accounts in BC.

This section focuses on the high-risk area of practice which is real estate law.

What happens when a lawyer is charged with a crime?

Part 4- How The LSBC Will Discipline Lawyers

It talks about a number of different Law Society issues.

Part 4 is all about the discipline committee, action on complaints, and how citations work.

Part 5- Talks about how the Tribunal and Appeals work

The rest of the Law Society rules talk about custodianships, lawyers’ fees, how to structure a law firm and other LSBC issues.

Paralegals are not regulated in the same way as they are in Ontario.

There is no official process to become a paralegal in BC.

There is an organization called the BC Paralegal Association. They are not the LSBC.

Some of the BC Paralegal Association Rules Are Below

-Must be supervised by a lawyer at all times

-Paralegals are not allowed to say they are lawyers or imply it

-They must work hard and produce high-quality work

-Keep all client information secret

–Paralegals must follow all laws

-They must treat other people well

BC Code of Professional Conduct

There is something called the “Code of Professional Conduct for BC.”

There are seven chapters, and we have highlighted what each chapter is about below.

Chapter 1- Definitions of the BC Code

Chapter 2- How lawyers are meant to act towards others and the courts

3- How lawyers are meant to work with clients and provide quality advice

4-How law firms are meant to do marketing

5- Working as a prosecutor and being honest about mistakes.

6- How to handle law students and employees

7- How to interact with other lawyers and the LSBC

We hope you found this detailed article helpful. We wanted to cover everything about how BC lawyers are meant to operate.

If you think we missed something, please let us know. We can then update this article with new content. We want it to be a complete guide.

Author: Alistair Vigier is the CEO of ClearWay Law