How Much Does a Professional Conduct Lawyer Cost in Canada? Maybe Nothing. Or Not Much. A Litigator Gives You His Top 5 Tips on Saving Money When You're Facing Legal Challenges Related to Your Work

As profession and workplace upheaval could reach unprecedented levels during the most economically adverse times in living memory, you might resultantly find yourself having to come to grips with legal problems in your chosen vocation. Those problems could take a myriad of civil, administrative, health or disciplinary forms. I know lots of folks - lawyers included - who will try to tough out those problems by themselves, fearing cost or publicity associated with seeking outside help. 

However after 25 years both as a regulated professional (working with governments and private clients) and a professional conduct lawyer helping others with their work-related legal issues, I’ve come to appreciate that a little professional conduct legal help can go a long way. Perhaps a longer way than in most other areas of the law, as work conduct issues usually don’t involve court-based processes with long expensive timelines. But likewise because of their informality these processes can encompass a myriad of unwritten or vague rules that may be hard to pin down unless you’ve been through the same process lots of times before. 

While “procedural fairness” may be the touch phrase everyone’s spouting, there unfortunately can be a lot of disagreement over what does and doesn’t amount to such fairness. Thus I present to you my top five tips on saving yourself lots of money on a professional conduct lawyer when you need one. 

TIP #1 - CHECK WITH YOUR INSURER

More professions include some limited insurance coverage for conduct matters than you might think, but the coverage (or lack thereof) varies greatly. Some coverage is limited to only professional negligence, however there could be bleed through between issues of negligence and conduct. Sometimes certain kinds of conduct coverage is optional, but you might have the optional coverage without knowing. It pays to check, dig, and push a little with your insurer on coverage. I’ve helped professionals with amazing collaborative insurers, where my help didn’t cost them a penny. 

TIP #2 - CHECK WITH YOUR UNION

There’s absolutely no incompatibility between the word “union” and the word “profession.” Lots of professionals are unionized, especially in the government sector. Sometimes a union might simply pay for a private lawyer for you, other times you might get help from an in-house union lawyer. Like for your insurer, you might again need to dig and push on coverage. But unions could be more flexible than insurers when it comes to helping those who really need help. 

TIP #3 - CHECK WITH YOUR EMPLOYER

Regardless of whether you are or aren’t unionized, your employer could have a duty to provide you legal coverage if your professional difficulties arose during the course of your work. Employer-paid coverage can be even more challenging to negotiate than that paid by an insurer or union, but again digging for precedents - who got coverage in the past - and pushing, which could go so far as grieving a refusal, could pay great benefits. 

TIP #4 - RETAIN A LAWYER TO PURSUE COVERAGE

It’s an irony that you might need to retain a lawyer to pursue free coverage for a lawyer in whatever work situation you find yourself in. But it can be worth it, since that initial lawyer seeking free coverage for you probably won’t cost very much if the retainer is limited to negotiations on coverage.

Sometimes your insurer/union/employer might be accept you’re entitled to legal coverage for some services, and not others. But again, you could push - saying for example, that if the facts of the matter all fall within your work, and there is an admission you should be entitled to some coverage, then more expansive coverage actually won’t cost the payor any additional funds. 

You might even wind up with some coverage from an insurer, some from a union, some from an employer, and some you need to pay for yourself. 

TIP #5 - RETAIN A LAWYER EARLY & PICK ONE WHO WILL COLLABORATE WITH YOU

Even if you’re stuck with footing the bill yourself, your legal budget will stretch much further the earlier you reach out to hire a professional conduct lawyer, even if that sounds counterintuitive. It might be possible for your lawyer to quickly kill off proceedings before they ever get going, because they are based on information that isn’t credible or a simple misunderstanding. 

Your legal fees will also be much lower if you find a lawyer who is willing to collaborate with you by offering unbundled legal services, where perhaps you do most of the contact with your regulator or employer, and the lawyer just provides background advice and direction. I never offer that kind of service to non-professional clients simply because by the time I explain how to do things, and then fix their mistakes, it will cost those non-professional clients more in the end. However for professionals I’m always keen to collaborate as my clients are well organized with their information, know their regulator and/or employer better than I ever will, and are usually careful as to how they express themselves to others about their legal situation. 

Gordon Scott Campbell represents law enforcement officers, public servants, and private sector professionals throughout Canada in conduct, administrative, civil and criminal proceedings. He is author of The Investigator’s Legal Handbook series of books, and has served as a Federal Crown Prosecutor, Member Representative with the RCMP, and Counsel at the Military Police Complaints Commission. Learn more at www.proconductlaw.com.