The Ontario Small Claims Court rules do not contain any provision for the court to award costs against a litigant’s legal representative personally. However, when faced with a last-minute trial adjournment request caused by a paralegal who kept his licensing suspension secret from his plaintiff client and from the opposing defence party until just two weeks before the trial (necessitating an adjournment so that the plaintiff could retain new legal representation), the court had no hesitation to draw upon the Rules of Civil Procedure governing proceedings in the Superior Court of Justice, which contains provisions for awarding costs against a legal representative personally.
The paralegal, however, consented to pay costs thrown away to the defence, such that the court didn’t have to make this award under protest (although the Deputy Judge intimated that he likely would have made the same award if it was contested by the paralegal).
One important factor when costs are awarded against a legal representative is that the legal representative be given ample time and opportunity to address the court’s inclination to make such an award because this is a very unusual and atypical type of award, and certainly one that would not be expected by the legal representative. In this instance, the Deputy Judge was satisfied, based on the submissions made by the suspended paralegal, that he was fully anticipating that he would be asked to pay costs thrown away, and was able to make full submissions on this issue, including ultimately agreeing to pay the costs personally, on consent.
Radhi v Ajram, 2022 CanLII 44112
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onscsm/doc/2022/2022canlii44112/2022canlii44112.html