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	Law Firm Accused of Cheating Abuse Victims By Kim Pemberton Windsor Star November 14, 2011 www.windsorstar.com/firm+accused+cheating+abuse+victims/5705651/story.html A Calgary law firm is being investigated for shortchanging victims of residential school abuse who were awarded financial compensation by the federal government. Blott & Company is accused of withholding money from clients' settlement packages to pay off loans they helped secure for them at interest rates in the 20-plus percentage rage. The firm is also accused of not properly representing some of its 3,000 clients. Settlement proceedings for Blott & Company clients had been stalled since Oct. 31 after B.C. Supreme Court Justice B.J. Brown ordered the halt until the hearing Thursday, when Brown also ruled Blott & Company can continue representing its 3,000 clients during the investigation. The request for the investigation was made by Michael Mooney, the court monitor for the residential schools settlement agreement. Lou Zivot, a lawyer representing the court monitor, said the main concern is whether claimants are getting the money they were awarded during their hearings. There are questions regarding Blott & Company's relationship with three particular lending companies and whether clients were improperly invoiced for loans in anticipation of them receiving a settlement, Zivot said. He cited the example of a claimant whose payout was in excess of $100,000 but who ultimately received less than $30,000. The client was invoiced for two loans that totalled approximately $70,000, but claims "she didn't receive that amount of the loan." Zivot said in another example the client was asked directly by Blott, after her successful hearing, whether she wanted a loan before the compensation had been paid. Another claimant stated that evidence given during his compensation hearing did not reflect his story, and the lawyer representing him was a lawyer unfamiliar with his case, Zivot said. "It's important to get to the bottom of these type of arrangements," he said. "We want to examine if there's a breach of the settlement agreement." The court monitor, who acts somewhat like an auditor, was appointed in 2007 to work on behalf of the provincial and territorial courts of Canada, which are responsible for ensuring the $1.9-billion settlement is meted out properly. Thursday's hearing in Vancouver did not address the validity of the accusations, made by four Blott & Company clients. It was called to determine whether further investigation was warranted by the court monitor, and to see if other clients have similar concerns. The allegations before the court include that some of Blott & Company's clients may not have received the full compensation amount to which they were entitled, and that the law firm billed them for loans. The residential schools settlement agreement stipulates that payouts cannot be assigned to other parties, including lenders. This provision was further cemented in a 2008 B.C. Court of Appeal ruling which concluded the settlement agreement banned payouts to anyone other than the residential school recipients. The investigation will also examine whether clients were fairly represented by Blott & Company at the hearings held by the Independent Assessment Process. The IAP is an out-of-court alternative dispute resolution body that resolves claims of abuse at residential schools and determines compensation. About 10,000 hearings have already been held around the country. IAP chief adjudicator Daniel Ish said the average compensation awarded to individuals is $105,000, and lawyers representing clients receive 15 per cent of the compensation amount and can bill clients up to a further 15 per cent. Roy Millen, the lawyer representing David Blott, principal in Blott & Company, said the firm has not paid out any settlements in the past two years. He said Blott, who has been a lawyer for 12 years and in the last six years has built his practice around these residential school abuse cases, "vehemently denies the allegations." He said the company had 125 clients under the old compensation process and 68 of them received loans, which have all been paid back. About the loans, he said, "law firms across the country were doing this."
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