Lawyer Removed from record by Judge????

[GrouchyDean]

I am in Canada, I hired a lawyer to represent me in a dui charge. On the day of the trial my lawyer was aware I would not be able to make the date as I was out of Province and he was fully aware of this. I hear nothing back from the lawyer (spoke with his office the day prior to the trial via phone) after the trial date so i assumed it was over as he claimed we would win. A few months go by and all of a sudden there is a bench warrant out for my arrest, Upon further investigation into this I find out by way of Court Transcript that the judge had my lawyer removed from the record and issued a warrant for me with no explanation form my lawyer, no fight from my lawyer and not to many questions asked by the judge. I confront my lawyer regarding this issue and one of his replies were as follows " thats what happens if you dont attend court, the judge issues a warrant for your arrest, charges dont just mysteriously disappear.???? Really, that's what he has to say, the day I was up for my bail hearing who happens to walk by the holding area look at me and smile, Good ole lawyer i Had hired and would not talk to me nor even assist me????? What can I do this guy has caused me major grief and it is still going to court and its been 5 years? first offense, no priors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks In advance,
D.

 

[Zigner]

I am in Canada ...

Sorry, this forum is for US law questions only.

 

[quincy]

I am in Canada, I hired a lawyer to represent me in a dui charge. On the day of the trial my lawyer was aware I would not be able to make the date as I was out of Province and he was fully aware of this. I hear nothing back from the lawyer (spoke with his office the day prior to the trial via phone) after the trial date so i assumed it was over as he claimed we would win. A few months go by and all of a sudden there is a bench warrant out for my arrest, Upon further investigation into this I find out by way of Court Transcript that the judge had my lawyer removed from the record and issued a warrant for me with no explanation form my lawyer, no fight from my lawyer and not to many questions asked by the judge. I confront my lawyer regarding this issue and one of his replies were as follows " thats what happens if you dont attend court, the judge issues a warrant for your arrest, charges dont just mysteriously disappear.???? Really, that's what he has to say, the day I was up for my bail hearing who happens to walk by the holding area look at me and smile, Good ole lawyer i Had hired and would not talk to me nor even assist me????? What can I do this guy has caused me major grief and it is still going to court and its been 5 years? first offense, no priors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks In advance,
D.

You can make use of the following links to possibly find free legal advice in Canada:

http://www.legalline.ca/

http://legal.advicescene.com/ca

 

[eerelations]

I am in Canada.

It may be that your "excuse" for not being able to attend court was not good enough for either your lawyer or the judge. (Simply happening to be out of Province is unlikely to be viewed as a valid excuse.) And when the lawyer tried to gaslight the judge with your "excuse" the judge said something to the effect of "You should know better than that and since you don't, I'm removing you from this case and issuing a bench warrant for your client." Which is all perfectly allowable.

If despite the above you still have a complaint to make about your former lawyer and/or the judge, you need to take said complaint to your provincial Law Society, which is the appropriate venue for complaints of this type.

(And please note, your former lawyer is correct, if you don't show up for court, your charges really don't disappear.)

 

[quincy]

I am in Canada ...

?? I thought you were in Mexico now, eerelations (although I am aware you used to live and work in Canada).

It appears here that there was a major failure to communicate. The attorney should have impressed upon GrouchyDean the need for him to appear in court for his trial. I would be surprised if the attorney didn't.

 

[eerelations]

I am in Mexico. I say that I am in Canada because it's easier to say that than to say "I am retired now and living in Mexico but only for the last two years, before that I was working in Canada dealing with legal issues for 30 to 40 years and although I haven't been doing that for two years now, I keep up with Canadian law + it hasn't really changed much in the last two years anyway, I know that because I keep up with it."

 

[quincy]

I am in Mexico. I say that I am in Canada because it's easier to say that than to say "I am retired now and living in Mexico but only for the last two years, before that I was working in Canada dealing with legal issues for 30 to 40 years and although I haven't been doing that for two years now, I keep up with Canadian law + it hasn't really changed much in the last two years anyway, I know that because I keep up with it."

You are right. It IS easier to just say "I am in Canada."

 

[GrouchyDean]

Thanks for the advice eerelations

I am in Canada.

It may be that your "excuse" for not being able to attend court was not good enough for either your lawyer or the judge. (Simply happening to be out of Province is unlikely to be viewed as a valid excuse.) And when the lawyer tried to gaslight the judge with your "excuse" the judge said something to the effect of "You should know better than that and since you don't, I'm removing you from this case and issuing a bench warrant for your client." Which is all perfectly allowable.

If despite the above you still have a complaint to make about your former lawyer and/or the judge, you need to take said complaint to your provincial Law Society, which is the appropriate venue for complaints of this type.

(And please note, your former lawyer is correct, if you don't show up for court, your charges really don't disappear.)

Thanks for the advice eerelations, The lawyer never said jack to the judge, I have the transcripts, nor did he i norm me of any happenings in the court room that day, nothing, zero, zilch, he gave no reasoning, he never asked to be removed, the judge removed him as my counsel and that puzzles me as I thought I was the only one who could fire my lawyer.

 

[Zigner]

Why did you wait "a few months" to follow up on something of this importance?
(Rhetorical question)

 

[GrouchyDean]

Follow up

Why did you wait "a few months" to follow up on something of this importance?
(Rhetorical question)

As I stated earlier, I never heard back from the lawyers office teh last thing said to me was we will contact you after tomorrow and let you know what happened in court. I never heard back from him or his office. I agree i could of called them but I guess no news is good news, I found out about the warrant and everything else via my mother, family and friends to a warrant on the internet posted for me, i then went back to onatrio to deal with it as I was not hiding form it.

 

[quincy]

As I stated earlier, I never heard back from the lawyers office teh last thing said to me was we will contact you after tomorrow and let you know what happened in court. I never heard back from him or his office. I agree i could of called them but I guess no news is good news, I found out about the warrant and everything else via my mother, family and friends to a warrant on the internet posted for me, i then went back to onatrio to deal with it as I was not hiding form it.

Despite the fact that eerelations was nice to address your earlier question, and members of this forum will on occasion provide information for foreign visitors, this is really a US forum designed to handle US law questions only. For legal help for your DUI and your attorney complaint, you will want to seek assistance in Ontario.

You can use the links provided that direct you to legal advice forums in Canada to ask additional questions of those who reside in Canada, or you can make use of the following link to file a complaint against your attorney. The following link connects you to the Law Society of Upper Canada, which eerelations mentioned in her earlier post.

http://www.lsuc.on.ca/with.aspx?id=644

I am still surprised that your attorney did not tell you that you needed to appear for the hearing. If all is as you say, it appears your attorney failed to represent you properly so a complaint against him seems valid.