{"id":9035,"date":"2022-08-12T11:12:55","date_gmt":"2022-08-12T15:12:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/360mediations.com\/en\/?p=9035"},"modified":"2022-08-12T11:12:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T15:12:59","slug":"costly-lesson-suing-someone-who-clearly-shouldnt-have-been-sued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.360mediations.com\/en\/costly-lesson-suing-someone-who-clearly-shouldnt-have-been-sued\/","title":{"rendered":"Costly Lesson Suing Someone Who Clearly Shouldn\u2019t Have Been Sued"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This recent case is a cautionary tale about suing a defendant for the wrong purpose.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this instance, the decision to sue a lawyer who was representing a party in opposition to the plaintiff in an earlier transaction, solely for the purpose of getting some documentation from this lawyer to use in the lawsuit, proved to be costly for the plaintiff who was ordered to pay in excess of $35,000.00 in costs when the case was summarily dismissed against the lawyer.<\/p>\n

The dismissal of the case against the lawyer was highly predictable because a lawyer generally only owes a duty of care to his or her own client, and not to any other person.. It is only in very rare and exceptional situations where a lawyer would owe a duty to protect the interests of a non-client third party, and this case clearly did not fall into any of these rare situations.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse for this Plaintiff was the fact that the claim was brought too late, such that it was also dismissed on the basis of being statute barred by the Limitations Act, 2002<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Against this backdrop, the final blow for the Plaintiff was costs.\u00a0 Generally, when a plaintiff unsuccessfully attacks a professional\u2019s reputation through a lawsuit, costs are awarded on a substantial indemnity basis if the claim is dismissed against the professional.\u00a0 Substantial indemnity costs is an amount very close to the full legal bill incurred by a party.\u00a0 Normally a successful party will recover about 50%-60% of their actual legal bill, which is referred to as recovering costs on a partial indemnity scale.<\/p>\n

In this case, the defendant lawyer sought $35,912.96 all inclusive on a substantial indemnity basis, which was granted by the judge without any alteration or adjustment.\u00a0 The judge took the position that there \u201cwas clearly no merit to the claim<\/span>\u201d against the lawyer, and that the Limitations Act<\/em> \u201cwas a clear defence in the circumstances of this case<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge squarely addressed the Plaintiff\u2019s argument that she shouldn\u2019t be burdened by these costs because she didn\u2019t want to sue the lawyer but it was all her lawyer\u2019s doing when the Statement of Claim was drafted.\u00a0 In this regard, the judge said the following (at paragraph 42):<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not an answer to the claim for costs that \u2018my lawyer advised me\u2019 to bring this claim. \u00a0That is an issue between \u2026(the Plaintiff)\u2026. and her lawyer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Generally judges are much more forgiving when it is not overtly clear whether a defendant would be found liable: sometimes theories of liability simply need to be tested, and it is too difficult to predict the outcome with any degree of certainty when the lawsuit is started.\u00a0 But in the present case, the claim, and rationale behind the lawsuit, was flawed right out of the gates, and the Plaintiff paid the price for unnecessarily dragging this defendant into the fray.\u00a0 \u00a0A high cost sanction deters others from using the litigation process in this manner.<\/p>\n

Clarke v. Mann et al,<\/strong><\/em> 2022 ONSC 4588<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.canlii.org\/en\/on\/onsc\/doc\/2022\/2022onsc4588\/2022onsc4588.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This recent case is a cautionary tale about suing a defendant for the wrong purpose.\u00a0 In this instance, the decision to sue a lawyer who was representing a party in opposition to the plaintiff in an earlier transaction, solely for the purpose of getting some documentation from this lawyer to use in the lawsuit, proved… Continue reading Costly Lesson Suing Someone Who Clearly Shouldn\u2019t Have Been Sued<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[39,53,134],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-costs","category-court-practice","category-professional-negligence","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nCostly Lesson Suing Someone Who Clearly Shouldn\u2019t Have Been Sued - 360Mediations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If there is no prospect that a defendant will be found liable, a plaintiff should think twice about the lawsuit because significant costs are apt to be awarded.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mail.360mediations.com\/en\/costly-lesson-suing-someone-who-clearly-shouldnt-have-been-sued\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Costly Lesson Suing Someone Who Clearly Shouldn\u2019t Have Been Sued - 360Mediations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If there is no prospect that a defendant will be found liable, a plaintiff should think twice about the lawsuit because significant costs are apt to be awarded.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mail.360mediations.com\/en\/costly-lesson-suing-someone-who-clearly-shouldnt-have-been-sued\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"360Mediations\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/360Mediations-120028596572318\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/360Mediations-120028596572318\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-12T15:12:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-12T15:12:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.360mediations.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/COURT-DECISIONS-360MEDIATIONS-1x1-1.png?fit=406%2C322&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"406\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"322\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David M. 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