Useful Court of Appeal Endorsement on Unsupported Claims of Wrongdoing by Counsel

There is often useful material in Court of Appeal endorsements. Unfortunately that material is often overlooked.

Friday’s decision in Marks & Marks LLP v. The Galetta Renewable Energy & Environmental Network Co-operative Corporation (Green), 2008 ONCA 291 contains a helpful nugget for counsel facing unsupported allegations of wrongdoing – something sadly common. The Court awarded what appears to be significantly enhanced costs as a punishment for making such unsupported allegations:

With respect to costs, we are concerned that the respondent “Green” made serious allegations of impropriety against the appellant law firm that, on the record before this court, have no evidentiary support. Accordingly, we would order costs of the appeal to the appellant in the amount of $10,000, plus disbursements and GST, payable by the respondent “Green”.