N.S. court lifts veil of secrecy in lawyer's battle with regulator
Blois Colpitts was lead director, counsel for e-learning company Knowledge House
Nova Scotia's highest court has allowed a look inside a case with ties to the province's longest criminal trial.
In a decision released Friday, a judge of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal rejected a bid by Blois Colpitts to maintain publication bans and sealing orders in his battle with the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society, the group which regulates the legal profession.
The society has launched disciplinary proceedings against Colpitts following his conviction last year for fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud.
Colpitts was lead director and counsel for Knowledge House, a Nova Scotia e-learning company that imploded in 2001.
Colpitts and other company directors were accused of manipulating stock prices just before the company's collapse.
Following his conviction, Colpitts reached an agreement with the barristers' group to voluntarily give up practising law until the appeal of his conviction is decided.
In his arguments to the courts, Colpitts said his agreement with the society should have meant no further action would be taken against him. The society took a different view.
Colpitts went to court to fight the society, but he wanted more. He tried to have all aspects of his battle with the society sealed and to have him only identified in court records by the initials XYZ.
Judge rejects bid for anonymity
In a decision last month, Justice Peter Rosinski of the Supreme Court rejected Colpitts's bid for anonymity. Rosinski's decision was sealed until this week's ruling by the Court of Appeal.
"I am not convinced that there is a serious risk to an important public interest to be protected here," Rosinski wrote.
"Regarding the reputational consequences, that is a legal argument constructed of straw," the judge went on to say.
In his review of Rosinski's decision, Justice Duncan Beveridge of the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal found no error in his reasoning.
Beveridge also dismissed Colpitts's arguments about the potential harm he would face if his legal battle were made public.
"I agree with the Society that there is no evidence how or why Mr. Colpitts would suffer irreparable harm if the public is aware that, in reliance on the terms of the March 27, 2018 agreement, he challenges the Society's decision to lay charges of unprofessional conduct," Beveridge wrote.
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