A Calgary lawyer who misused his position to take financial advantage of Indian residential school abuse survivors 鈥� including many from British Columbia 鈥� has been prohibited from practising law in Alberta.
David Blott, who represented more than 4,700 claimants and earned millions of dollars under the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), resigned earlier this month after he was investigated for allegations of misconduct regarding his representation of claimants.
The average individual compensation paid out to a claimant under the IAP is more than $100,000 and Canada pays out 15 per cent of the settlement to the lawyer representing the claimant to cover legal fees and expenses. Lawyers can bill an additional 15 per cent for complex cases.
A news release issued by the Alberta Law Society said it accepted Blott鈥檚 resignation, but the society also imposed its most severe sanction under the Legal Profession Act, which is disbarment.
鈥淗is disbarment allows his former clients to avoid enduring the additional stress of testifying in a formal hearing which could potentially require up to two additional years of process,鈥� the release states.
The law society鈥檚 manager of communications Ally Taylor said the statement of facts regarding Blott鈥檚 disbarment was not immediately available.
However, Scott Dawson, lawyer for The 91原创 Sun, obtained specific information recently regarding Blott鈥檚 misconduct after it sought the lifting of a court ban on materials sealed by the B.C. Supreme Court in an earlier investigation. A court ordered investigation into Blott and Company was completed in February 2012 by court monitor Michael Mooney. It contained the following conclusions:
There were a 鈥渟ubstantial鈥� number of Blott claimants in the IAP who were not properly represented causing 鈥渂oth emotional and financial harm鈥� to claimants.
Mooney鈥檚 report identified 1,159 completed IAP applications that had never been submitted in the IAP process and those applicants were under the mistaken impression their cases had been put forward for compensation.
Blott & Company had hired a company called Honour Walk to help claimants fill out their application forms. The court monitor found the company was not at 鈥渁rm鈥檚-length鈥� and lawyers for Blott & Company had provided specific instruction on how the forms should be filled out. Changes were made to applications without claimants knowing. In one case an application form was submitted by David Blott two months after the claimant had died.
A number of parties related to Blott & Company participated in a lending system that directed Blott claimants to specific lenders after the law firm learned their client would receive a compensation award. At least two loans were made by a member of David Blott鈥檚 family.
There were 380 loans made to Blott claimants in advance of their settlement money.
In one case Randy Blott, a relative of David鈥檚, loaned one of his clients $6,000 with a repayment requirement of $7,500 when she received her compensation award.
鈥淭he impact to the claimant in the case of these settlement loans appears to be high interest rates and fees that the claimants may not have understood and which their legal counsel at Blott & Company did not apparently advise them about, despite being fully apprised of the nature of the fees and interest being charged to Blott & Company clients,鈥� the Monitor鈥檚 Report stated.
After the report was made to B.C. Supreme Court Judge Brenda Brown, in June 2012 she banned Blott from further participating in the IAP process.
A class-action lawsuit that has been filed but not yet certified alleges Blott conspired to deprive residential school survivors their rightful compensation for sexual and physical abuse.
In that statement of claim, it was noted that Blott & Company routinely charged the additional 15 per cent to claimants.
鈥淒avid Blott set out to represent as many residential school survivor claimants as possible, and to maximize fees payable to him, without regard to his ability to properly discharge his professional obligations toward those individuals and to provide them with the due skill, care and attention to their individual claims,鈥� according to the lawsuit filed.
As of May 31, 2014 the Indian Residential Schools Adjudication Secretariat, which manages the IAP, had received 37,870 applications for compensation. Of this number, 27,941 cases have been resolved and more than $2.4 billion has been paid out.
The last compensation hearings will take place in the spring of 2016 and the process will be completed by 2018.
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