London lawyer disbarred, ordered to pay $64K in legal fees

Article content

A London lawyer has lost his licence to practice and must pay $64,800 in legal fees “owing to his total disregard for the judicial process,” a tribunal has ruled.

Oussama Djalaledine Hamza “has demonstrated an unwavering belief that the rules do not apply to him,” the Law Society of Ontario Tribunal concluded. “As to the extent of his misconduct, it is remarkably broad.”

Article content

A week before this discipline hearing, for example, Hamza emailed to the tribunal chair that “the Law Society is run by genocidal neo-Nazi child molesters who work with criminals and lie to the public.”

The email also was sent to the minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.

Hamza could not be reached for comment.

His fall from grace as a lawyer is remarkable in the number of collisions with legal professionals and the governing body for the profession in Ontario along the way.

“This was a complex matter; the complexity was due to the diversity of the allegations and the pointless obstinance of the respondent,” the most recent tribunal ruled.

The tribunal’s website shows 11 hearings, notices and orders involving Hamza during the past two years. The tribunal hears cases between the Law Society and Ontario lawyers and paralegals.

Hamza started practising law in Ontario in 2019 and operated Hamza Law in London, according to the Law Society.

Beginning in August 2020, the Law Society of Ontario received complaints about the lawyer’s messages on social media.

Article content

Article content

In response to an article by a prospective law student born in Nigeria, Hamza posted photographs of the student and his family with “thought bubbles” that suggested the lawyer was a criminal, drug dealer and slave lover.

He posted on social media, “women didn’t write their histories because they didn’t care to do so” and “women just don’t care about history or philosophy” because “women don’t generally consider being a philosopher or historian ‘sexy.’”

That began a complicated run through disciplinary hearings and appeals, tinged by Hamza’s colourful responses to each inquiry and order.

In response to the first investigation launched, Hamza went to court to seek at least $215,000 damages and an order that he no longer be required to address any justice as your honour or justice, that he no longer pay taxes to “a European colonizer, but to a ‘red Indian’ representative in government,” and he no longer pay fees to the law society, “which shall be declared racist.”

Article content

A judge threw that claim out, saying the legal documents filed by Hamza “amount to over 1,000 pages of rambling, pseudointellectual attacks on the (law society) and the other respondents, expressions of his opinion on their character and integrity, racist and misogynist attacks on the respondents and the judiciary, arguments that amount to little more than incomprehensible legal gibberish.”

Hamza then sued the judge, among others, and when that action was thrown out of court, appealed, and lost again.

Several times during the past two years, he was suspended from practising law.

But it wasn’t the social media attacks that ended his career.

In March, the tribunal ruled the comments may be offensive but didn’t breach the Law Society’s code of conduct and quoted a previous ruling that it’s not the Law Society’s responsibility to police speech in these circumstances.

But Hamza’s responses to the Law Society investigations into the matter amounted to professional misconduct, the tribunal rules.

Hamza made “hostile, inflammatory, inaccurate and discriminatory” statements in court documents, correspondence and on his company’s website, the Law Society of Ontario Tribunal ruled.

Article content

He refused to participate in interviews with the investigator, began litigation against the Law Society and complainants, failed to obey a court order and started litigation against the judge who gave an order.

Hazma’s court filings in the matter are ridden with “searing and inappropriate criticism,” the tribunal found.

The tribunal found the court filings breach rules “to carry on the practice of law honourably and with integrity.”

Two months after that hearing, Hamza faced a hearing over the punishment he’d receive.

That hearing found there was no evidence Hamza felt remorse or even recognized the seriousness of misconduct.

“He consistently demonstrated a lack of respect for others which arises either from a lack of insight or the absence of empathy and concern,” the hearing panel ruled.

Despite claims he would do so, Hamza never brought forward reference letters from clients that might have mitigated the punishment, the tribunal said.

Hamza “did not merely fail to respond to two investigations launched after numerous complaints about his incivility, he compounded his professional misconduct by retaliating against the complainants, the investigators, other Law Society staff members, and ultimately judicial and adjudicative officers.”

Hamza’s licence has been revoked and he is ordered to pay the Law Society’s costs of $64,800, which doesn’t reflect the amount of time spent on the issue, the tribunal said.

Interest of seven per cent a year will be tacked onto any outstanding payments, the tribunal ordered.

rrichmond@postmedia.com

Article content