Law Society of Ontario professional regulation division report
The Law Society of Ontario's (LSO) Professional Regulation Division released its 2024 End-of-Year Report, highlighting significant achievements in complaint resolution and regulatory enforcement. The LSO surpassed the National Discipline Standards by resolving 91% of complaints within 12 months and 94% within 18 months, exceeding the benchmarks of 80% and 90%, respectively. Out of approximately 6,500 complaints received, only 4% involved lawyers and 3.8% involved paralegals, with most being low-risk matters resolved without formal investigations. However, there was an uptick in serious misconduct cases, particularly financial misconduct, leading to increased use of interlocutory suspensions and summary hearings. The LSO plans to seek enhanced powers to access trust account records directly from financial institutions to improve oversight. Additionally, the Office of the Commissioner expects to clear its backlog of review requests by December 2025, having reduced the wait time from 17 months to approximately 12 months.