B.C. court rejects law society's bid for injunction to pause Legal Professions Act implementation

B.C. lawyers' efforts to halt the implementation of a provincial law creating a single regulator for lawyers, notaries public and paralegals suffered a setback Wednesday, as the B.C. Supreme Court refused to grant a temporary injunction pausing the transition.

B.C. lawyers' efforts to halt the implementation of a provincial law creating a single regulator for lawyers, notaries public and paralegals suffered a setback Wednesday, as the B.C. Supreme Court refused to grant a temporary injunction pausing the transition.

The Law Society of B.C. and the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C. are each suing the province over its recently enacted Legal Professions Act, also known as Bill 21.

The plaintiffs argue that the act eliminates self-regulation for lawyers in B.C., which violates the unwritten constitutional principle of the independence of the bar. The Trial Lawyers Association also argues that the act violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The decision issued Wednesday by Justice J. Miriam Gropper does not make any conclusions about those arguments. Rather, it addresses the plaintiffs' application for "injunctive relief" in the form of orders preventing the law from being implemented while their constitutional challenge to it remains before the courts.

Gropper declined to issue such orders, ruling that – although the case raises a serious issue for trial – allowing the implementation of the law to continue will not cause irreparable harm. Nor does the "balance of convenience" favour an injunction.

When deciding whether to issue a temporary injunction, courts use a three-part test, determining first whether there is a serious question to be tried, then whether irreparable harm will result without an injunction, and finally whether the balance of convenience favours such an intervention from the courts.

In this case, the province acknowledged that the plaintiffs had raised a serious question to be tried, according to Gropper's decision.