Winnipeg lawyer David Bradley suspended by regulator

After misleading his clients for years and "fabricating" information about their file, Winnipeg lawyer David Michael Bradley has been suspended from practising law for one year.

The decision by the Law Society of Manitoba takes effect March 1 and also requires Bradley to undergo counselling by a psychiatrist and pay $5,988 towards the costs of the investigation and hearing.

• Read the law society's notice of suspension (PDF)

At a Jan.13hearing, Bradley pleaded guilty to all charges against him and entered into a statement of agreed facts with the law society.

The citation said that over a period of approximately 10years, commencing in June 2002, Bradley misled the clients on numerous occasions regarding the status of their civil lawsuit.

The clients, who are not named in the decision, retained Bradley to represent them in a lawsuit against an insurance company.

The statement said the family's insurance claim had been denied as a result of the company's suspicion that a possible arson had been committed by a family member, but RCMP investigated and laid no charges related to the fire.

The law society concluded that, "After filing a statement of claim and taking some early steps to advance the action Mr. Bradley did nothing further of consequence on the file." The client complained to the law society in March of 2013.

The law society's findings include the following:

• "From 2002 until 2010 Mr. Bradley misled his clients advising them that he had been taking various steps to advance the court action when he had not."
• "He fabricated information including the details of what were fictitious motions he had advanced and fictitious court orders which he told his clients had resulted in orders of costs against the defendants."
• "He fabricated accounts of plans to proceed to trial and of matters being delayed due to a particular judge falling ill."
• "He did not advise his clients of a Notice of Motion brought by the defendants to dismiss the action for delay and instead advised his client that the insurance company was prepared to engage in some form of settlement discussions when they were not."
• "He told his client that he had set up a conference with a judge to set a trial date when he had not."
• "He falsely led opposing counsel and his colleagues to believe that the client intended to oppose the motion for delay."
• "He ultimately consented to an order dismissing the Statement of Claim for delay without his client's knowledge of the existence of the motion or that he had consented to it."
• "After the claim had been dismissed, he continued to communicate to his client advising that matters were progressing in court and that he had appeared before and met with a judge regarding the scheduling ofa trial date."

Calls by CBC News to Bradley's law office, at Wilder Wilder &Langtry, were not returned.

Documents filed by the discipline committee said Bradley apologized to the clients, who attended the hearing last month.

The documents said Bradley advised through his lawyer that he was "horrified" by what he had done in the case.

"He then apologized to the law society for the resources that were expended in investigating and prosecuting this complaint.He then apologized to the profession generally regarding the impact that his behaviour will have on the reputation of lawyers in our community," said the discipline committee reasons.

The document states Bradley sought psychological therapy in order to better understand why he behaved in the manner he did.

Bradley was called to the bar in 1991.

His prior discipline history involved a formal caution in 2008 for failure to act with integrity and failure to provide the expected quality of service.

In the 2008 matter, a client had complained that no progress had been made on a statement of claim over several years.The law society investigation found no statement of claim had ever been filed and the limitation period hadexpired.

The law society paneldocument on the latest casesaid Bradley's behaviour is "entirely unacceptable and is deserving of a significant penalty which, in the panel's view, is one step short of disbarment."

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