The Law Society of Ontario’s Assessment of Capacity in Relation to Mental Illness: A Critical Analysis

Over the past 20 years, a number of studies across the globe have found that mental health issues—including substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and other forms of psychopathology—are especially acute in the legal profession. The Law Society of Ontario (“Law Society”), the regulator of the legal professions in the province, has a role to play in addressing these issues, particularly due to its statutory jurisdiction over the capacity of lawyers and paralegals (“licensees”). In this paper, I review in depth the Law Society’s current approach to licensee capacity concerns in its applications before the Law Society Tribunal. My critical examination of the current coercive processes is informed by their impacts on the autonomy interests of licensees. Ultimately, I argue that in light of these impacts, the Law Society’s authority with respect to licensee capacity must be strictly and narrowly interpreted, to the greatest benefit of the individuals at issue.

Department dc:contributor.department

Law

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• LeMesurier, David

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Lemmens, Trudo
• Lessard, Michaël

• Capacity
• Illness
• Licensee
• Mental
• Regulatory
• Society

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/103241

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/103241