A Sechelt lawyer has been suspended from practice by the Law Society of B.C. and will face a disciplinary hearing in March.
The discipline committee's citation against Jerome Williams lists allegations of misconduct including his being convicted of eight Income Tax Act offences and driving while prohibited. The citation alleges Williams was involved in a scheme to have a trial improperly adjourned and in particular assisted one of his clients to take medication which hospitalized her and assisted his client by "driving her to the hospital in circumstances in which she would likely be hospitalized."
Williams was suspended effective Sept. 13, 2006 and the citation was issued Oct. 11, according to Law Society public affairs manager Brad Daisley. Williams' disciplinary hearing is set for March 7 and 8, 2007 at the Law Society office in Vancouver. The society's disciplinary hearings are open to the public and the hearing reports are published at www.lawsociety.bc.ca. Williams was called to the bar in 1995.
If the discipline committee has adverse findings from a hearing, it has the options to reprimand the lawyer, fine the lawyer an amount not exceeding $20,000, impose conditions on the lawyer's practice, suspend the lawyer from the practice of law or from practice in one or more fields of law (with or without conditions) for a specified period of time or disbar the lawyer, according to the website. A phone call to Williams for comment was not returned by Coast Reporter's deadline Thursday morning.
Williams was found guilty on June 2, 2006 of the driving while prohibited charge involving him driving a client, who had allegedly passed out at the wheel, to hospital in New Westminster in October, 2004. In her reasons for judgment, provincial court Judge Elaine Ferbey concluded Williams' testimony of the imminent danger of the situation was not credible and she rejected his defence of necessity. The Crown had submitted at trial that Williams had induced his client to take drugs in order to have the trial adjourned, according to the written judgment. The full reasons for judgment are posted online at www.provincialcourt.bc.ca/judgmentdatabase.
