Solicitor Lien initially Denied was Granted on Appeal, based in part on New Evidence. In this case, the court refused to grant a former law firm a solicitor lien on their work product when their client hired a new law firm, based primarily because the former law firm could not establish that the client cannot or will not pay the lawyer’s account. On appeal, the Court of Appeal looked at events that transpired after the lower court order was made, including the initiation of a legal malpractice claim against the former lawyer, and some heated communications between the former and current law firm, and accepted that this evidence suggested that the client cannot or will not pay the lawyer’s account, and that was sufficient to overturn the lower court’s decision, and grant the former law firm a solicitors lien for their work product up to the time their retainer ended.
UL Lawyers Professional Corporation v. Notay, 2022 ONCA 8
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onca/doc/2022/2022onca8/2022onca8.html