Lawyer disbarred over false billing scheme

A lawyer found guilty of professional misconduct for using a “fraudulent billing scheme” when invoicing a program for people who can’t afford legal representation has been disbarred.

A Law Society of Manitoba panel found Rishi Ganesh Bharath guilty of the charges in February and issued a notice that he can no longer practice law earlier this month.

Bharath was called to the bar in 2016. He withdrew from practising last year amid the law society’s probe.

The law society determined his scheme involved taking on clients who were receiving assistance from Legal Aid Manitoba. He would withdraw as their lawyer under false pretenses but charge the provincial government program the full amount.

“(Legal Aid Manitoba) is a public body charged with providing legal services to Manitobans who have limited access to justice and cannot otherwise afford legal representation,” the law society panel wrote in its decision. “LAM already has resource challenges meeting the needs of its existing clients.”

The law society found that the public fell victim to misappropriation in Bharath’s billing scheme.

He took on six Legal Aid clients in 2022 and 2023, provided limited services and abruptly closed their files, claiming he lost contact with them, the law society found.

In one case, Bharath attacked the client’s character, claiming they had gang affiliations and an extensive criminal record, despite their having no apparent record.

He also claimed addiction and mental health issues affected multiple clients’ ability to respond to him as justification for withdrawing as their lawyer and said one client stopped responding despite his best effort to contact her.

Under the law society’s code of conduct, lawyers can only withdraw their representation for good cause and with reasonable notice.

Legal Aid and the law society investigated Bharath’s conduct and found billing irregularities they say he tried to cover up, including creating fraudulent documents on two occasions during the investigations.

He claimed he wrote to one client in August 2022, staying, “I have not heard from you in a while,” the law society found, despite a Legal Aid certificate being issued only days before.

Bharath billed Legal Aid for the time he took to draft the letter. The client told an investigator they never received it. The law society ruled the lawyer fabricated the letter to mislead its probe.

The investigation found Bharath changed invoices to misrepresent his work and the amount of time he spent on it in order to charge the full amount.

He stopped responding to the law society in January 2024, a month before he withdrew from practising, and did not respond to documents filed ahead of his hearing. He did not provide any statements or other files.

Bharath was ordered to pay $9,200 as a penalty at a hearing he did not attend in November.

The law society said his decision to withdraw from practicing law had no bearing on its obligation to protect the public by disbarring him.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca