Lawyer Joe GroiaJENNIFER ROBERTS
Joe Groia has accused the Law Society of Upper Canada of conducting a "flawed" and "incomplete" investigation that led to allegations of misconduct against him during the fractious trial into the Bre-X gold-mining fraud.
According to a lengthy submission filed with the Law Society, Mr. Groia said the regulator's investigators told him that they did not order copies of the trial transcripts after learning it would cost $6,000.
Had the investigators reviewed transcripts of the 160-day trial that ended in 2001, Mr. Groia's submission said, it would "demonstrate that there had been no professional misconduct."
A spokesman for the Law Society, which regulates Ontario's lawyers and paralegals, declined to comment on Mr. Groia's allegations because they are to be the subject of a hearing next week.
"This is the Law Society's due process for deciding regulatory issues," the spokesman said.
Mr. Groia, a hard-hitting defence lawyer, is set to ask a Law Society panel on Monday to withdraw charges against him because of a "totally flawed" investigation.
The Law Society issued allegations last year that he was "abusive" and "offensive" toward Ontario Securities Commission lawyers during his defence of a former Bre-X Minerals executive, John Felderhof.
The trial, which began in 1999, became so adversarial between Mr. Groia and OSC lawyers that the securities regulator sought to replace the presiding judge. An Ontario judge turned down the request but chided Mr. Groia for "unrestrained invective" and "guerrilla theatre" tactics.
When the case went to the Ontario Court of Appeal, one of its judges singled out Mr. Groia for his "appallingly unrestrained" courtroom behaviour.
The charges against Mr. Felderhof were ultimately dismissed and no one was ever held accountable for a mining scam that saw billions of dollars of investor savings wiped out after tampering with gold samples was revealed.
Mr. Groia's lawyer, Earl Cherniak, said the Law Society "is pushing way too far," because Mr. Groia's conduct pales in comparison with the behaviour of other lawyers sanctioned for misconduct after making physical threats and accusations of illegal conduct during court cases.
Mr. Cherniak also chastised the regulator for targeting his client 10 years after the Bre-X trial concluded.
"This is really a piling on," he said.