Online Paralega Course: This is news about Paralegal Firm who goes bankrupt...
TORONTO (CBC) - The Ontario-based paralegal firm XCopper has filed for bankruptcy, leaving thousands of clients without representation in court.
Documents obtained by CBC News from Industry Canada say XCopper Legal Services owes almost $2 million and filed for bankruptcy on Friday.
The company - which has offices in a number of communities including Toronto, Barrie and Ottawa - still has about 6,000 to 7,000 active cases in the legal system. Each client has already paid anywhere from $300 to $1,000 as a deposit, depending on the complexity of the case.
Gary Parker, the former manager in charge of training at XCopper's office in Brampton, said many clients might not even know the company has gone out of business.
"So what is happening is that in the majority of traffic tickets ... people are being considered 'deemed not a dispute.' They're being convicted in their absence because no-one is showing up [to defend] them," said Parker.
If the clients are lucky enough to be in court on the day of their trials, they can defend themselves.
So far, the company hasn't given any public explanation of why it went bankrupt. Some suspect it could be linked to a series of reforms instituted by the Ontario government to regulate the entire paralegal industry.
New rules came into effect in May that imposed licensing and financial requirements on the firms.
The new rules include the establishment of a trust account for clients' money that the paralegal firm can't access until the work is done.
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