Simon's Legal Resources

Representation - Lawyers - Duty to Opposing Parties

. Yan v. Hutchinson

In Yan v. Hutchinson (Ont CA, 2023) the Court of Appeal addresses the limited nature of duties owed by representing lawyers to opposing parties:

[17] Fifth, a number of the defendants are lawyers whom Ms. Yan sued for their conduct in their roles as lawyers. The motion judge correctly noted: “In general, a lawyer owes a duty to his or her client and does not owe a duty to non-clients.” He cited Geo. Cluthe Manufacturing Co. v. ZTW Properties Inc., 1995 CanLII 10684 (ON SC), [1995] O.J. No. 4897 (Div. Ct.), leave to appeal refused, 1995 CarswellOnt 4624 (C.A.). In that case, at para. 28, the court cited Lord Donaldson of Lymington M.R. in Al-Kandari v. J.R. Brown & Co., [1988] 1 All E.R. 833, at p. 835 (C.A.): “I would go rather further and say that, in the context of ‘hostile’ litigation, public policies were usually required that a solicitor be protected from a claim in negligence by his client’s opponent, since such claims could be used as a basis for endless re-litigation of disputes”. This legal principle remains current: Ntakos Estate v. Ntakos, 2021 ONSC 2492, at para. 106.