A Surrey lawyer has been suspended from practicing law for 10 weeks starting Oct. 1, 2024 after admitting to professional misconduct by misappropriating $8,985.99 in client funds related to 23 client's funds between Nov. 21, 2020 and Jan. 21, 2021.
According to a Law Society of British Columbia document (consent agreement), Roderick Coston McLeod withdrew the funds from his trust account and deposited them to his general account when he wasn't entitled to the funds, and also failed to prepare or deliver a bill to his clients before withdrawing trust funds for the payment of purported legal fees and also, related to one or more of 23 client files, failed to maintain proper accounting records.
The document also states that between June 2019 and November 2020 McLeod collected GST from clients but failed to "promptly remit some or all" of $28,360.59 in GST, interest, and penalties due to the Canada Revenue Agency. Further, between 2020 and 2022, McLeod filed trust reports for the years 2020, 2021, and 2022 that included information he ought to have known was false or misleading, and between April 2017 and March 2018 while representing a client related to a property sale "failed to honour the trust conditions accepted by him by failing to attend to the timely payment of the outstanding property taxes, including any penalties and accrued interest, and utilities."
McLeod has been a member of the law society since Sept. 19, 1979 and mostly practises in real estate conveyancing, some litigation and wills and estates law.
Between 1981 and 2003 he practiced law in Kimberly, Nelson, Kamloops and Delta before moving his firm to Surrey in January 2024.
A law society disciplinary committee determined there were mitigating circumstances, finding that McLeod's conduct "was not intentional, but the result of overlooking his responsibilities during a confluence of stressful circumstances.
"The Lawyer experienced significant pressure due to a combination of an extremely stressful trial and appeal and travelling between practice locations (Kamloops and Delta), which occurred in the context of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the effects of a flood in his Kamloops office in March 2020," the document reads. "At the material times, the Lawyer’s stress exacerbated the Lawyer’s medical condition, which indirectly contributed to his inattention to his practice.The Lawyer has taken educational steps to ensure he is in full compliance with the Law Society’s trust accounting rules. He has reviewed the Law Society’s Trust Accounting Handbook and Law Society webinars, including Trust Accounting Basics and Trust Accounting Regulatory Requirements. The Lawyer is remorseful and acknowledges his misconduct."
