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OBA Calls for Amendments to Business Corporations Act at Pre-Budget Hearings
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| Posted: 2/2/2010 12:00:00 AM |
At pre-budget hearings, Ontario Bar Association President Carole Brown called on the province to amend the Business Corporations Act to request equity with the dental and medical professions by allowing for non-voting family shares in legal professional corporations.
Excerpt from Carole Brown's presentation:
“On behalf of our members, and as we have done in the past, we would, once again, urge you to consider an amendment to the Business Corporations Act. Under the Act, lawyers cannot currently issue non-voting shares to immediate family members; doctors and dentists can. While this is clearly an issue of fairness and equity, it is also, most decidedly, an issue of access to justice. In smaller centres, towns and rural communities throughout this province, sole practitioners and small firms provide the legal services for the majority of Ontarians. The ability to access those same rights available to other professionals could mean the difference between maintaining a viable law practice to serve that local community or having to pack up and move one’s practice to a larger, potentially more viable centre. The Ontario Bar Association submits that it is unfair, inequitable and inappropriate to afford doctors and dentists this benefit under the Act, but not lawyers.
Lawyers whose practices consist primarily of legal aid certificates, whether family, civil or criminal, which is indeed the case in many areas of this province, already struggle financially. They serve, in many cases, the most vulnerable in our society. The recent increase to legal aid, which I will address more fully in a moment, will be helpful, but it is by no means a panacea. Why should certificate lawyers not be allowed to find the same measure of financial security as other professionals when they are at the front lines of the justice system?”
Full Submission
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