OHTA.ca

sorry if I'm in the wrong area, I'm new here and wasn't sure where to post this question.

last year I had received a large traffic ticket. I hired a paralegal to fight the ticket for me, which they did an extremely poor job of. as such I only paid half of the paralegals fee ( which i thought was fair since they assured me that it was a very simple case and I would win, but ended up paying the whole ticket amount ).

they are now threatening have the traffic ticket reinstated. is this even possible?

thanks in advance for your time!

No

I think they can re-open the case, but they are going to have to explaiin to the jp why they are doing so. And if the reason is due to unpaid paralegal fees, that might not go by easily with the judge.

The court system is not meant to help paralegal's retrieve their money from you.

They can however, simply sell your bill to a collections agency that will start coming after you.

The agreement with most paralegal companies is that a "win" is considered anything that is a drop. Even if its a small drop in points or fine etc. its still considered a win. Also, if they fought in trial for you and lost, then that is not their fault.

If you did not like what the paralegal did, the best route is to pay them their money for their services, then file a complaint to the LSUC.

Withholding money that is due for services rendered is not a good idea, even if you lost your case. Your case may have been too complicated and hard to win. You simply may have just lost.

I agree with admin... but I'm having a bit of trouble following the scenario here.

You said that:

kscott wrote:last year I had received a large traffic ticket

but...

kscott wrote:...ended up paying the whole ticket amount

Ok... so what it sounds like is you lost in court... and then...

kscott wrote:they are now threatening have the traffic ticket reinstated

Now I'm not following. Are you saying that you lost, paid the full amount, and now they're threatening to have the system hit you with the same ticket again??

In any case... as admin said... if you're unhappy with the services rendered by the paralegal, best thing to do is pay them, then contact the Law Society of Upper Canada and file a complaint. If a refund for services not provided is owed, that is the way to go with it.

Agree with Admin and RI.

Pay the amount owing. Fail to do so could result in a collection agency being asigned to collect the funds, which of course then probably flags your credit rating negatively.

Then use proper channels to get reimbursed: LSUC or civil court

Maybe someone knows (haven't been involved with this area in many years) but thinking that failure to pay is in an area of a fraud