Lawyers now required to get clients’ ID

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This article was published 19/01/2009 (6273 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA lawyers now have to know who their client is.

Under new rules which came into effect on Dec. 31, the Law Society of Manitoba has enacted Client Identification and Verification to help prevent lawyers from being scammed or being inadvertently part of money laundering by criminals.

“For all clients, you need to get basic identification information,” said Allan Fineblit, CEO of the law society.

Fineblit said this includes name, address, occupation and phone numbers.

But Fineblit said when money transactions are involved, including real estate, business purchases and sales of shares, lawyers have to fill out a form which includes seeing and recording official identification documents, including driver’s licence, birth certificate or passports.

“It’s to avoid fraud or money laundering attempts,” he said.

Fineblit said most of the rules are intended to protect lawyers when receiving money from a client or paying out money.

Last year, a Manitoba lawyer was scammed out of more than $135,000.

The lawyer was retained by a person to collect a debt of $150,000 on behalf of a business. When the lawyer sent a demand letter to the debtor, and received what appeared to be a certified cheque, the client asked for the money to be wired to them.

A few days later, after the lawyer had taken his fee out of the cheque, the cheque bounced when it was discovered it was fraudulent.

Fineblit said lawyers across the country all require the same identification information.

“We want everybody to play by the same rules,” he said.

Fineblit said lawyers could be subject to discipline by the law society if they don’t take down the necessary identification information.

“We do spot audits and if we see it isn’t being done we’d have to deal with it.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca