Professional and Academic Discipline
Students at colleges and universities, and professionals subject to regulatory oversight, such as a lawyers, real estate agents, and immigration consultants, may find that they become subject to an investigation or a hearing for a breach of certain rules and regulations by their governing body. All colleges, universities, and professional bodies, also have language in their enabling statute that would allow them to also concurrently punish members for conduct that could form part of a criminal charge. Depending on the nature of the allegation, the penalties may be severe and life-changing.
A student accused of academic misconduct for cheating on an exam may be unable to register for the following academic year, may become ineligible for scholarships or have to forfeit or repay scholarships that they already obtained, or may simply be kicked out of their program and their transcript will always reflect that fact.
A professional who is faced with a hearing may have the allegations published in a periodical sent to all members thereby tarnishing their professional reputation. The penalties for most professions involve substantial fines, suspensions from the profession for a period of time, and even the prospect of being kicked out of the profession permanently.
Another big difference between professional and academic discipline and criminal charges is that generally the governing body is not required to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt and many may draw adverse inferences from you testifying or giving evidence. Your rights to unreasonable search and seizure, and your right to be presumed innocent, do not generally apply to these hearings. You are facing the same, or even greater jeopardy compared to a criminal charge, but with the odds stacked against you from the outside. That is why it’s important to get us on your side early.
As a final distinguishing point, your rights to appeal or review a discipline decision are much more restrictive than what you would have after a proper criminal trial and past discipline decisions may not be available to the public – such as the case with academic discipline.
Unlike criminal charges, certain regulatory bodies actually impose a positive obligation on their members to co-operate with an investigation and the failure to do so can itself be grounds for further punishment. While the specific advice will vary depending on the nature of the allegation and which governing body it is, the following generic steps should be followed.
First, ask for a short period of time to consult with us and retain us so we can provide specific advice. Such a request will generally be granted and allows critical time to understand your rights and obligations, and develop a strategy for each step of the discipline process.
Next, it is important to try and get a backup of all evidence as your access to your student or professional e-mail may soon be removed entirely. A good idea is to forward yourself every single e-mail and attachment that could possibly be relevant. You should send it to an e-mail over which the governing body does not have any control over – such as a Gmail, or Hotmail account. Keeping a second copy on USB or uploaded to a cloud service is also strongly advised. If documents are not in digital form, making a copy as well as scanning in a copy and sending it to yourself and keeping a copy on USB and through cloud storage is generally a good idea.
Usually the next important step is to understand the strength of the allegation against you and also possibilities for early resolution that does not result in any notation on a professional or academic record. You cannot accurately weigh the risk and pros and cons of how to proceed with your case until you have some idea as to the likelihood of success if you push ahead. As your cases
We have helped numerous students and professionals successfully minimize and completely avoid any form of penalties for a variety of different conduct. We also take great pride in the decisions in which we were fully successful – either at the hearing or through a subsequent judicial review or appeal. Our early engagement has also resulted in much better resolution offers being made to our clients than what was offered before they engaged us as their lawyers.
We handle cases all the way from investigation to review and appeal but our involvement at the earliest possible stage allows us the most opportunity to get any investigation or allegations dropped.
Unlike criminal cases, each governing body will have their own set of rules and procedures for how a discipline hearing will progress and be heard. Often these rules and procedures can be challenged as being insufficient to protect your rights and allow you to sufficiently prepare you for your own hearing. Despite what the governing body indicates as being the appropriate procedure it can be further challenged by way of judicial review to a Supreme Court Judge. The rules of natural justice and procedural fairness have to occur even in professional discipline hearings and we have experience successfully arguing successfully in Supreme Court that our client’s were denied a fair hearing.
For students we have assisted in investigations and hearings with the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, Justice Institute of British Columbia, and Alexander College.
Unlike criminal charges, a much larger portion of investigations result in formal allegations being made. Upon retaining us we will act quickly to ensure you do not expose yourself to further jeopardy by failing to co-operate in an investigation if you are required to do so, and to ensure all relevant documents and witnesses are identified and the best form of evidence is preserved.
A strategy that is unique to your case will be developed given your risk tolerance and also the consequences if you are unsuccessful. Some cases have no margin for error and no stone should be left unturned. Those cases may involve multiple trips to Supreme Court for judicial review and potentially the Court of Appeal and the hearing process may take years. Other cases may be more appropriate for negotiating a resolution that minimizes penalties and consequences and avoids publication in order to preserve the professional reputation of a client.
In truly exceptional cases, it may be appropriate to consider claims against the governing body for malicious prosecution or for failure to abide by its own rules and procedures, or for failing to turn over evidence that would be exculpatory and helpful to your defence.
Generally professional and academic discipline is offered only on an hourly basis with only a few exceptions. The total cost will depend on the defence strategy chosen. A strategy in which every interlocutory decision is challenged by way of judicial review will result in the process taking years, but will cost substantially more than a case in which we aim to resolve an investigation without a formal allegation being laid.
Flat fees can be offered for certain steps in a discipline case, such as judicial review of a final decision. Generally at the review stage of a discipline proceeding there is little chance of the case being resolved or dropped and we can accurately gauge the amount of time we will need to spend on the case.
Contact us either at (604) 259-6200 or using the form below for assistance with Professional and Academic Discipline
The foregoing provides legal information and does not constitute legal advice. As an analogy, legal information are equivalent to learning the rules of chess, and legal advice is the tactics and strategy that goes into winning a game. Lawyers are trained to give valuable advice that is specific to you after learning about the details of your case. Readers are cautioned that they will rarely achieve the best outcome for their case without actual advice. A consultation is often the best next step to take.