Vernon-based family lawyer Leonard Marriott has been found to have committed two more instances of professional misconduct related to estate planning.
A Feb.6 decision from a Law Society of B.C. hearing panel found Leonard misled the courts by knowingly filing false information pertaining to estate planning for an elderly client, identified as SG, in 2019.
And, the panel found, Marriott bungled a straightforward property transfer upon the death of SG’s spouse, identified as MM.
Chief among the complaints against Marriott is how he removed in error the joint tenancy SG and her spouse had on their property.
Marriott chalked it up to an “honest mistake.” The law society alleged incompetence.
The panel found Marriott not only severed the property in half, causing a legal headache at the land titles office, he also failed to properly communicate the error to SG.
Marriott, the panel stated, “utterly failed to accomplish this relatively straightforward service and managed to sever the joint tenancy, meaning that title to the portion under the name of MM became part of his estate, instead of transferring to the surviving joint tenant, SG.”
Marriott further caused problems when he did not factor in MM’s children from a previous relationship in the estate plan.
Marriott claimed SG did not inform him of the children — potential beneficiaries — but SG denied this before the panel.
The panel ultimately found Marriott uncredible and at one point “flummoxed” by his responses.
Marriott “alluded to the difficulties with accessing the court due to COVID, which left the Panel flummoxed. COVID did not impact the courts until March 2020.”
Marriott was evasive “on key points, was inconsistent within his own evidence, did not answer questions directly, added incongruous and disingenuous statements, and gave answers that did not accord with other independent evidence, including documentary evidence and evidence of the other witnesses,” the panel stated.
Marriott faced three professional misconduct allegations. One allegation of misleading other counsel was dismissed when the panel determined it plausible that Marriott did not believe there were any valid wills pertaining to the case, when in fact there turned out to be one.
Last December another panel determined Marriott mishandled the execution of a will and improperly withdrew funds as an executor.
Marriott’s “pre-taking” of more than $71,000 in executor fees without signed releases from the beneficiary constituted further professional misconduct, the panel ruled, adding that the fee amounted to five per cent of the $1.2-million estate and was considered a “substantive amount.”
The panel ordered Marriott to return the $71,149.12 in executor fees to his trust account.
Marriott has relatively little experience as a working lawyer.
He was admitted as a member of the society on Feb. 14, 1992, but only practised for a few months until becoming a former member on Dec. 31, 1992.
He was reinstated on Nov. 3, 2015, and resumed practising on Oct. 3, 2016, at Gerry M. Laarakker Law Corporation in Vernon. He practised there until Jan. 1, 2018, and has since practised in his own firm, the ruling noted.
