Professional Responsibilities: Supervision, Finance, and Contingency Planning

• Author: Michelle Roy McSpurren/Rosemary Bocska
• Pages: 165-183

8

Professional Responsibilities:

Supervision, Finance, and

Contingency Planning

Learning Outcomes

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

• Understand what is meant by professional

responsibility for legal services providers in Ontario,

as set out in Rule 8.01(1).

• Understand the scope of paralegals’ supervisory

responsibility under Rule 8.01(3), Guideline 18, and

By-Law 7.1.

• Understand the obligation to properly train staff to

adhere to relevant Paralegal Rules of Conduct.

• Understand when and how it is appropriate for

paralegals to delegate duties under Rule 8.01(4),

Guideline 18, and By-Law 7.1.

• Understand what is required from paralegals in

terms of financial responsibility pursuant to

Rule8.01(2) and Guideline 23.

• Understand what is required from paralegals in

terms of contingency planning and disaster

management.

165

Professional Responsibility ............. 166

Supervisory Responsibility ............. 166

Liability for Staff Conduct .............. 166

Staff Training on Obligations Under the

ParalegalRules of Conduct ......... 167

Delegation .......................... 168

Financial Responsibility ................ 172

Books and Records—By-Law 9 .......... 172

Client Funds—Trust Accounting ......... 173

Cash Transactions .................... 177

Client Property ....................... 177

The Client File ....................... 177

Contingency Planning and Disaster

Management ...................... 180

Conclusion ............................ 180

Key Terms ............................ 182

Useful URL ............................ 182

Review Questions ..................... 182

Discussion Questions .................. 182

Scenario-Based Questions .............. 183

© 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Professional Responsibility

Rule 8.01 of the Paralegal Rules of Conduct,1 set by the Law Society of Ontario (LSO),

requires paralegals to assume professional responsibility for all business with which

they are entrusted. This means that they are responsible for everything that happens

in their practice, including the actions of their staff. Professional responsibility

refers to paralegals’ obligations to observe the rules and ethics of the paralegal pro-

fession, as set out in the Law Society Act 2 and the Rules.

For example, section 8 of Guideline 8 of the LSO’s Paralegal Professional Conduct

Guidelines3 clearly indicates that it is the paralegal’s responsibility to ensure that their

employees, and anyone else involved with the client’s matter, understand the duty of

confidentiality (discussed in Chapter 9). It further provides that if someone employed

by the paralegal discloses confidential information without the client’s authorization or

in a way that is not permitted by the Rules, the paralegal will be held responsible for

that breach of the duty of confidentiality. Section 20 of the same guideline again

emphasizes that it is the paralegal’s obligation to ensure that all staff understand their

obligations with respect to confidentiality.

When instructing staff on the nature of their duties around main-

taining client confidentiality, you should also create and distribute

written policies with clear instructions on how you exp ect staff

to use, secure, store, manage, and return client property. These

policies should also cover the steps involved in preventing

inadvertent disclosure or accidental loss of client information.

Supervisory Responsibility

Professionalism requires accountabili ty and acceptance of responsibility. Passing th e

buck is not professional; professionals should not try to fault subordinates or others

for their own mistakes. Rule 8 effectively codifies Harry Truman’s famous statement

“the buck stops here,” with reference to paralegals and their work.

Liability for Staff Conduct

For paralegals whose business model requires them to employ others, Rule 8.01(3) and

Guideline 18 are noteworthy. Collectively, they emphasize that paralegals must directly

supervise any staff and assistants to whom task s and functions are delegated. This

1 Law Society of O ntario, Paralegal Rules of Conduct (1 Oc tober 2014; amendments current to 1 July 2021), online:

<https://lso.ca/about-lso/legislation-rules/paralegal-rules-of-conduct> [the Rules].

2 RSO 1990, c L.8 [LSA].

3 Law Society of O ntario, Paralegal Professional Conduct Guidelines (1 October 2014; amendments curre nt to

22October 2020), online: <https:// lso.ca/about-lso/legislation-rules/paralegal-professional- conduct-guidelines>

[the Guidelines].

professional

responsibility

refers to paralegals’

obligations to obser ve

the rules and ethics of th e

paralegal profession as

determined by the LS O

ethics

a branch of philosophy that

seeks to address questions

about morality; a cod ified

set of moral rules specif ic

to the performance of

professional obligations

PRACTICE

TIP

professional

a member of a vocation

founded upon specialized

education and training and

subject to standar ds of

competence and ethics

166 PRACTICE MANAGEMENT FOR PARALEGALS

© 2022 Emond Montgomery Publications. All Rights Reserved.