DRUG WAR LEADS TO RECORD LEGAL BILL

The federal government spent more than $50 million last year on legal work
done by private law firms -- the largest legal tab in Canadian history.

Internal records from the Department of Justice disclose that skyrocketing
costs for the war on drugs, aboriginal-related litigation, and the
government's novel U.S. tobacco smuggling suit were the main reasons behind
the record $52.7 million spent in 2000-2001 on Crown agents, the private
law firms that represent the federal government in litigation by and
against the Crown.

Currently there are about 770 lawyers and 235 law firms across the country,
most with Liberal pedigrees, who, as standing agents, regularly handle the
government's drug, tax, fisheries and other criminal prosecutions. In
addition, an undisclosed number of ad hoc legal agents handle civil cases
for the government.

Total drug prosecution costs in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2001 rose
20 per cent to $20.1 million from $16.8 million the year before, according
to the documents obtained by The Lawyers Weekly.

"The cost of drug prosecutions was definitely up last year compared to the
previous years," confirmed Marius Nault, acting executive director of the
agent affairs program in the federal prosecution service of the Department
of Justice.

"There is a clear increase of case complexity, translating into an
increased number of hours (worked by federal drug prosecutors). There is
also enhanced police enforcement, and we have pressure, both domestic and
from our major partner the United States, to combat organized crime."

Most of the increased costs were in B.C. and Ontario.

The largest chunk of the total legal tab -- $13.5 million-- was run up in
British Columbia, home of large-scale illegal marijuana "grow" operations
that export vast quantities of highly prized, potent "B.C. bud" to eager
customers in Hollywood and other U.S. locales. Thirty-five B.C. law firms
billed the government more than $100,000 for work done in 2000-2001, mostly
drug prosecutions.

Drug prosecutions have always been the biggest ticket item on the
government's legal tab. But costs have risen substantially in recent years
as more drug charges are laid and prosecuted, and trials become longer and
more complex. Narcotics conspiracy charges, for example, often involve
organized crime, multiple accused persons and time-consuming Charter of
Rights and Freedoms issues.

The total cost of $52.7 million in 2000-2001 for all civil and criminal
cases handled for the government by outside law firms was up 10 per cent
from $48.1 million in fiscal 1999-2000. The totals are a projection by the
Department of Justice because some legal bills are still coming in.

Since 1997-98, spending on Crown agent-provided legal services has risen by
37 per cent. That increase would have been held to 22 per cent (or roughly
six per cent a year) but for the $9.2 million the government has paid six
U.S. law firms in the past two years to pursue its unprecedented civil
fraud suit in New York against tobacco companies for $1 billion in damages
allegedly caused by smuggling. Canada is currently appealing a U.S. federal
judge's dismissal of the case, which is already the most expensive lawsuit
ever launched by the government.

The federal government has also spent many millions to defend itself in a
massive Federal Court case brought by the Samson, Ermineskin, Montana and
Louis Bull bands who are suing the Crown for $1 billion-plus in damages for
its alleged mishandling of billions of dollars in revenue from the oil
reserves of Pigeon Lake (south of Edmonton), the fourth largest oil field
in Canada. Some of the wrongs alleged by the bands go back to the signing
of Treaty No. 6 in 1886.

As a result of the Samson trial, aboriginal-related legal agent costs rose
to $4.5 million last year, up 73 per cent from $2.6 million in 1999-2000.

Overall in 2000-2001, the government spent $20 million on civil litigation,
$24 million on criminal cases, $3 million on constitutional and
international law, and $5.7 million on other types of legal work such as
admiralty and maritime law and tax litigation.

Next to B.C. lawyers, U.S. attorneys reaped the lion's share of the legal
fees -- $13.2 million -- for the tobacco lawsuit and for defending Canada's
interests in major trade disputes such as those involving softwood lumber
and regional jets.

In Ontario, more than 30 law firms billed a total of $11.5 million, mainly
for doing drug and other criminal prosecutions.

Lawyers in the Atlantic region billed $5.5 million, largely for prosecuting
drug and fisheries cases. Prairie lawyers also billed $5.5 million.

At the bottom of the billing heap were Quebec lawyers, who were paid $3.5
million, with only five firms billing more than $100,000 in the year.

Crown agents love their steady incomes but complain bitterly about the fees
paid by the federal government, which have been frozen for more than a decade.

Hourly rates range from $30 for an articling student to $200 for a civil
litigator with 20 or more years' experience. Criminal work pays much less:
$30 to $82 per hour, based on experience.


Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jun 2001
Source: Ottawa Citizen (CN ON)
Copyright: 2001 The Ottawa Citizen
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Website: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/326
Author: Cristin Schmitz