Manitoba lawyer disbarred after showing 'clear lack of integrity'

A Manitoba lawyer been disbarred after being disciplined for a second time by the province's law society.

Chaman Badohal was officially disbarred on Dec. 21, after a Manitoba Law Society disciplinary committee panel unanimously found her guilty of more than a dozen counts of professional misconduct, and was ordered to pay $14,650 in costs.

"No order for disbarment should be made lightly," the decision says. "The member has demonstrated a clear lack of integrity during her time as a lawyer and has shown herself to be ungovernable by the society.…

"We cannot go back and prevent any damage she has caused her clients through her incompetent legal representation, but we are obligated to protect the public from the member moving forward."

The ruling was made in Badohal's absence. In a written decision, the three members of the panel said she failed to attend her disciplinary hearing after being served with a citation earlier in 2023.

Badohal was previously suspended in 2021 for not disclosing she was being investigated for making false statements to Manitoba Public Insurance in applications with the society.

'History of dishonesty'

On one count, Badohal was found guilty of having handled trust money despite agreeing not to do so in an undertaking to the society in 2021.

The panel said she had used a secret trust account, and that this was an "intentional act" to deceive the society and breach the agreement.

"The member has a history of dishonesty and lack of integrity for which she was previously suspended," the written decision says.

"Not having learnt from her suspension, the member continued to act without integrity and complete disregard for the society and their attempts to regulate her."

In another case outlined in the decision, Badohal helped her husband transfer a property to a friend for $1 after a default judgment ordered him to pay a trucking company over $150,000.

The trucking company contested the transaction and the courts later found it to be fraudulent and ordered Badohal's husband be reinstated as the property owner.

Some of the counts are related to failing to deposit trust money into a pooled trust account while representing different clients, as well as multiple code of conduct violations.

In some instances, Badohal failed to update clients about the status of their immigration applications, or even failed to submit required documents, in one case causing a file to be closed despite approval of the application.

In a divorce matter, not only did Badohal fail to file any documents in court, she never returned the original copy of a marriage certificate that had been supplied to her, the decision says.

She also failed "to perform all legal services to the standard of a competent lawyer" on a real estate matter, the decision says.

"As the member did not appear at the hearing or provide any response to the citation, we do not have any explanation for the member's professional misconduct, and unsurprisingly, the society has not provided any mitigating factors on behalf of the member," the decision says.