BC lawyer hid insolvency from clients, ordered to pay special costs

In trial reasons issued August 6, 2024 (2024 BCSC 1436), the court ruled in the clients’ favor. A December 6, 2024 costs decision (2024 BCSC 2217) went further, finding the defendants’ conduct during litigation reprehensible and ordering special costs against Ross, his firm, My Wee World Enterprises Inc. and Joanne Ross.

This ruling settles the dollar amount of those special costs. Rather than send the question to a registrar, the plaintiffs asked the trial judge, Madam Justice V. Jackson, to fix the amount herself under Rule 14-1(15). She agreed, citing her familiarity with the case and concerns that a registrar’s hearing, estimated at seven days, would face lengthy delays in Victoria. She awarded the full sum sought in the plaintiffs’ Bill of Special Costs: $2,402,498.74 in fees plus applicable GST and PST, and disbursements totaling $59,326.69 with GST, for an aggregate of $2,750,125.28, payable jointly and severally.

Justice Jackson pointed to the case’s scale in reaching that figure: a 50-day trial, a notice of claim running more than 90 pages, and real estate assets the defendants themselves valued at more than $10 million. She also found a contingent fee arrangement between the plaintiffs and their counsel, under which fees were banked at half rate and paid at double if the case succeeded, was fair and reasonable. Delays caused by the defendants, including document disclosure that arrived years late, factored into the total time billed.

Justice Jackson found the request to draft that fictional escrow document was “a sham and a desperate effort” to conceal Ross’s default.

For wealth professionals, the case shows how steep the price gets when a lawyer or advisor steers clients into private deals while holding an undisclosed financial stake and concealing personal insolvency: exposure that compounds well past the original judgment once litigation conduct is factored into costs.