A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients — many of them child protection cases — has lost his license to practice law.
The Law Society of Ontario said it received a total of 28 complaints from clients of Michael Allison Constable starting in 2020.
Constable handled family law and child protection cases, but often did not show up for hearings or communicate with clients.
“Many of the clients Mr. Constable abandoned were vulnerable,” the court decision said.
“They needed him to provide them with legal advice to promote their rights and protect their interests. When needed, he did not respond, did not attend meetings with clients, did not attend meetings with opposing party attorneys, did not attend settlement conferences, and did not attend court.”
In one case, Constable agreed to represent a woman and her husband – known in court documents as ‘Client B’ – who were seeking access to their grandson after their son’s death.
He agreed to $2,500 to represent them, but waited too long to file the motion to add the access issue to an ongoing custody hearing, forcing Constable to file a separate court request.
The grandparents had trouble contacting Constable after that incident and had to settle for speaking to a law student who was writing the court application on their behalf.
However, in court the judge rejected the request because it was riddled with errors.
“It was prepared on an inadequate form, bore the incorrect application number and did not contain adequate supporting documents,” the court said.
When the judge advised the grandparents to speak to Constable about the request, they responded that “sometimes it was impossible.”
Customers were “discouraged and humiliated”
After that hearing, Constable suddenly withdrew as their attorney, leaving his clients “disheartened and humiliated by the experience and decided not to take further legal action regarding access to their grandson.”
In another case, a woman hired Constable to help her obtain a court order restricting her ex-spouse’s access to her children because she believed he was violent.
But after agreeing to take the case, Constable refused to take their calls or respond to emails. Of the 36 emails she sent, he responded to only four and instead contacted the client through her accountant.
He failed to appear for a hearing on June 1, 2021, leading the woman’s ex-spouse to gain temporary access to the children.
After failing to attend court and file the motion, Constable stopped responding to the woman in August of that year, forcing her to hire a new attorney who had to fight to save the case.
In another example, a woman sought an urgent order to increase her ex-spouse’s contribution toward her daughter’s college education. When her ex-spouse made an offer, the client rejected it and told Constable to schedule a trial on the matter.
She later discovered that he “had not presented anything on her behalf to the court” and could not explain how he spent the advance she provided him.
Client surprised to find his office permanently closed
Constable was also an attorney in “numerous” child protection cases, but “frequently was absent from court appearances without notice,” which negatively affected eight of those cases.
Not all cases involved child protection. A woman she represented in a drunk driving case in October 2021 was shocked to discover that an arrest warrant had been issued because Constable did not attend a court hearing on the case.
The woman went to her office and discovered that it was permanently closed. The order was eventually vacated and she hired new legal representation.
In addition to interactions with clients, Constable also failed to cooperate with nine Ontario Law Society investigations into his conduct.
“Mr. Constable did not respond to any of the Law Society’s letters, emails or telephone calls regarding the nine inquiries,” the court’s decision said.
“The last direct contact with Mr Constable was on 10 November 2021, when a Law Society investigative solicitor attended his office and personally delivered a letter requesting information and a response. In total, the Law Society sent 11 communications to Mr Constable in relation to the nine investigations. He did not respond to any of them.”
He abandoned his legal practice.
He also abandoned his law practice without telling his clients, providing them with his case files or accounting for how his retainer money was spent.
“Mr. Constable not only abandoned his clients and his practice, but he also abandoned his staff,” the decision said.
“He left them to deal with his clients.”
In its decision to disbar Constable, the court said his actions were particularly problematic because of the vulnerability of his clients.
“They needed him to provide them with legal advice to promote their rights and protect their interests,” the court said.
“He made empty and meaningless promises about presenting the materials necessary to promote and protect his interests. “His actions caused real harm to some of his clients.”
In addition to revoking his license, the Law Society was awarded costs of $12,915. Constable was also ordered to refund his clients for advances that he had not accounted for.
Read the full decision here.