Legal Services January 8, 2013 JANUARY 8, 2013 Page 2 of 11 11 A. - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Legal Services

January 8, 2013

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www.middlesex.ca

The Vision

• Expand the use of the County Solicitor by

Municipalities, the independent EMS Corporation and the independent Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus Inc.

• Provide equivalent or improved services compared to

services Municipalities receive when hiring private law firms…

• At a rate less than the $400-$600 per hour charged by

such firms = cost savings

• Municipalities maintain existing decision making

authority and responsibilities

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How?

• The County Solicitor is a specialist in municipal law,

planning and development law, commercial litigation and tribunal work

• The County Solicitor has been successful against the

caliper of counsel routinely retained by municipalities when he was in private practice, as Solicitor for the City of Cambridge and now as the County Solicitor

• The County allows the County Solicitor to be retained

by Municipalities at the County Solicitor’s cost to the County, as opposed to $400-$600 per hour plus travel and disbursements

• Use of County Solicitor does not need to be exclusive -

can co-exist with use of other legal counsel

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How cont…

• The County Solicitor is retained by the

County at all times and owes a duty to the County at all times

• Law Society Rules allow lawyers to be

retained by more than one client if there is no conflict and the parties consent to the joint retainer

• If retained by a Municipality and conflict

develops, the County Solicitor may need to withdraw for one or both clients

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Examples of Legal Advice Already Provided to Independent Entities

• Legal Advice re: Legal Non-Conforming Uses

and Building Code Issues

• How to expand/improve by-law enforcement
• Successful resolutions between by-law

violators and Municipalities, aimed to achieve permanent solutions on the ground for Municipalities

• Contract drafting/review

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Examples of Services Already Provided to Independent Entities

• Planning and development advice, including

avoidance of an expensive OMB Hearing

• General legal advice re issues encountered on a daily

basis

Value Added Service

• Legal Advice is available at affordable cost often

BEFORE the matter becomes a legal emergency, which the point when a legal firm is generally retained

• = Value, for legal emergency may be able to be

prevented

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What are the Challenges?

• Consent and Privilege Agreements need to be signed
• The individual from the Municipality seeking advice is still

retaining counsel and incurring fees…

• Meaning the individual from the Municipality requires the

same authority as he/she would otherwise require to retain counsel (whether that authority be a one time Council approval or general delegated authority)

• Municipal Staff to do all the work on the file that they are able

to do and avoid temptation of having County Solicitor perform functions that municipal staff can complete

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What are the Challenges?

• Municipal Staff to ask appropriate legal questions as they

arise and take the file back for further work by staff where appropriate

• Municipal staff to provide as much notice as possible to

County Solicitor and avoid grenade (with pin out) delivery of files whenever possible

• Municipal staff to provide all relevant information to County

Council, avoiding negative surprises for County Solicitor

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What are the Challenges?

• County Solicitor is one individual and has County

responsibilities

• Will not be able to work on every matter and/or prosecution

for every Municipality

• Municipalities may have contracts with City of London and/or

paralegals, which need to be identified

• A balance of which types of files are provided to County

Solicitor and which are not will need to develop as the model progresses

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Moving Forward

• CAOs have been advised of the availability of Legal Services

to their Municipalities

• But Legal Services being available to Municipalities is still in

its preliminary stages

• Exactly how much and which type of work Legal Services will
• r should perform is a work in progress
• Would be nice if use of Legal Services could expand further

into Planning, Engineering and Contractual matters of Municipalities where there are no conflicts

• Relationships between County Solicitor and staff of

municipalities need to continue to develop

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Questions

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