Tony Wilson is a franchising and IP lawyer at Boughton Law in Vancouver and an adjunct professor at Simon Fraser University and Thompson Rivers University Law School. He is a regular business law columnist with The Globe and Mail and is an elected bencher of the Law Society of British Columbia. The views expressed in his columns are strictly his own and do not reflect the opinions of the Law Society of British Columbia, its members or any other organization.
Arguably, the best television series of the past 20 years isn't about dragons, New Jersey gangsters (and their psychiatrists) or high school science teachers in the meth business. It's about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster of 1986.
Under Section 7.2(3) of the B.C. Code of Professional Conduct, a lawyer is prohibited from using any device to record a conversation between the lawyer and a client or another lawyer even if lawful, without first informing the other person of the intention to do so. The language is virtually identical for lawyers in Ontario and other provinces and a breach of this rule is a breach of a lawyer’s ethical duties and could conceivably lead to a fine, or in very extreme cases, suspension or disbarment.
A childhood disease that was virtually eradicated in much of the world has made a comeback in B.C. The disease is measles, and complications include pneumonia, deafness, seizures, brain damage and death.
