This article describes CPATA’s approach to complaints and what to expect during the complaints process as a licensee.
A Note on Confidentiality
Confidentiality is a core tenant of the complaints process to protect all parties. The name of the complainant will be provided to you but their identifying information otherwise remains confidential throughout . As a licensee, your name remains confidential throughout the first stages, both the Registrar’s initial review stage and the investigations stage of the complaints process. Your name is only made public when and if a complaint is referred for a discipline hearing. At this stage, the Investigations Committee has conducted a thorough investigation and has established that there is sufficient evidence of professional misconduct or incompetence to warrant a hearing. To adhere to open court principles, and to protect the public, CPATA discloses your information at this point.
What to Expect During the Complaints Process as a Licensee
Complaints against a CPATA licensee may be filed by anyone (including a client or former client or another licensee) by filling out this form. The Investigations Committee may also initiate a complaint of its own based on information that it has received from other sources.
Once CPATA receives a complaint about you, we go through several steps. You are entitled to have complaints against you managed in your official language of choice, English or French.
Stage 1: Review by the Registrar
When CPATA receives a complaint, it is first evaluated by the Registrar to determine whether it is within CPATA’s jurisdiction, and if so, whether there is any evidence of potential professional misconduct or incompetence. If neither, then the Registrar has authority to dismiss the complaint, with or without advice to you about best practices that could have been followed.
The Registrar may ask you to provide a written response to the complaint before making a decision. In this situation, you will be sent a copy of the complaint and given about 30 days to reply to it. The Registrar will evaluate your response and decide whether the complaint should be dismissed at that point or sent to the complainant for further comments. Any submissions made by a complainant will be provided to you for your information and response. Sometimes agents retain counsel to provide advice on a response or about an agent’s duties during an investigation. This is not required but may be worth considering, particularly if a complainant makes serious allegations, the client matter was complex, or there are concurrent criminal or other professional regulation proceedings ongoing.
If the Registrar dismisses the complaint, a dismissal letter with reasons will be sent to both parties, and complainants have 30 days to appeal a Registrar dismissal to the Investigations Committee. It is possible that your first point of contact may be when you receive a complaint and dismissal letter at the same time. In cases of appeal, you will be kept apprised of the status of the matter.
If the Registrar determines that the complaint is not appropriate for dismissal, then the Registrar will refer the matter to the Investigations Committee.
Stage 2: Investigation by the Investigations Committee
The Investigations Committee has a duty to investigate any complaint if it has reasonable grounds to believe that you have committed professional misconduct or were incompetent (CPATA Act ss. 37 – 50). The Committee can act on a complaint filed by any person or may initiate a complaint of its own based on information that it has received from other sources.
The Committee follows applicable administrative law principles of fairness when conducting an investigation. For example, you will be given every reasonable opportunity to understand the complaint against you and to respond both in writing and usually by way of a recorded interview.
If the Investigations Committee decides to conduct an investigation, they will usually retain an external investigator with relevant knowledge, skills and experience to do so. The powers of an investigator are set out in the Act (ss. 42 – 48). The role of an investigator is to gather information to assist the Committee in determining whether you violated your duties under the Code of Professional Conduct, and if so, whether those violations amount to professional misconduct or incompetence. The investigator is not a decision-maker, they are a truth-seeker. You are both encouraged and required to cooperate with an investigation in a substantive and timely way.
The Committee seeks to complete investigations as efficiently as possible while ensuring both parties are able to make submissions and provide supporting information. If you refuse or otherwise fail to cooperate with a request for response or investigation, the Committee may determine that you have also violated your duty to cooperate as per the Code of Professional Conduct.
An investigation can take some months to complete, and the parties are kept informed of the status of the investigation on a regular basis. An investigator may ask the Committee for directions during an investigation.
When an investigation is completed, the investigator will provide a comprehensive report to the Investigations Committee that summarizes the allegations, the investigation steps, the submissions and evidence of both parties, and identifies relevant Rules under the Code for the Committee’s consideration. The Committee may:
- dismiss a complaint, with or without best practices advice, based on such things as a lack of jurisdiction or a lack of evidence that you have engaged in professional misconduct or been incompetent; or
- file a Notice of Application to refer the complaint to the Discipline Committee for a hearing.
In situations where a complaint raises serious concerns about ongoing risk of harm to the public and to the reputation of CPATA as the regulator of agents, the Investigations Committee may impose conditions or restrictions on or suspend your licence to practice, with or without hearing from you (s. 37.1).
Stage 3: Proceeding to a hearing before the Discipline Committee
i) Referral by the Investigations Committee to the Discipline Committee for a hearing
If the Investigations Committee decides after a thorough investigation that there is evidence of professional misconduct or incompetence, it will file a Notice of Application to refer the matter to the Discipline Committee for a hearing.
It is only at this point, when the Investigations Committee believes there is sufficient evidence to support a finding of professional misconduct and/or incompetence, that a licensees’ information becomes public. The Notice will include your name, location, the allegations and a brief summary of the facts supporting the allegations. This Notice is first served on you, then the Discipline Committee Chair, and thereafter is posted on CPATA’s website and in CPATA’s monthly newsletter.
You are advised to retain counsel as soon as you are made aware of a referral, if not before, although this is not required.
ii) Pre-hearing conferences and setting a hearing date
The Chair of the Discipline Committee will assign a member of the Discipline Committee to conduct one or more pre-hearing conferences to explore opportunities for settlement, facilitate the matter proceeding to a hearing, and to schedule dates for the hearing on the merits. The Chair will then confirm a hearing date. At this point, a Notice of Hearing Dates will then be published on CPATA’s website and in the monthly newsletter for licensees and the public.
iii) The Discipline Hearing
Discipline hearings are conducted virtually on Zoom and livestreamed through YouTube, according to procedures set out in the Policy on Conduct of Digital Proceedings . Hearings are open to the public. A Court Reporter is present to record the proceedings. The video of the proceeding is not recorded and is not available to watch online later; it is removed from YouTube and deleted. It is prohibited for any party or observer to record, broadcast or stream any portion of the proceeding.
A discipline hearing is a formal proceeding that typically follows rules of proceedings similar to those before a court or other regulatory tribunal. Participants in a hearing are the Discipline Panel (usually consisting of a Chair and two other panelists), the Investigations Committee (represented by counsel) and you as the licensee and your counsel. A CPATA Discipline Coordinator provides administrative support to the panel and the proceeding.
The parties may negotiate in advance a proposed settlement agreement, or a joint submission on facts and/or on penalty. In such cases, these proposed agreements or submissions often result in shortened proceedings of half to one day.
In cases where there is no agreement on facts, then the matter proceeds as a contested hearing with the presentation of evidence and testimony of witnesses.
For contested hearings, the panel will first make a decision on the merits of the Notice of Application and decide whether you are guilty of professional misconduct and/or incompetence. Once that written decision with reasons has been filed, then a second hearing is held to determine penalty, usually within 30 days following the filing of the decision on the merits.
iv) Discipline Committee Decisions
If the Discipline Panel decides that you have committed professional misconduct or were incompetent, the Panel may:
- impose conditions on your licence;
- suspend your licence for a period of not more than two years or until specified conditions are met, or both;
- revoke your licence;
- reprimand you;
- require you to pay a penalty of not more than $10,000 to the College;
- require you to pay to the College or any complainant all or a portion of the costs incurred by them during the application before the Committee;
- require you to reimburse all or a portion of the fees or disbursements paid to the licensee by a client; or
- take or require any other action that the Committee considers appropriate in the circumstances.
The Discipline Panel will prepare written decisions with reasons for all decisions, including settlement agreements, uncontested and contested hearings. A Discipline Panel may issue an oral decision following any proceeding, and these will be followed by the issuance of written decisions as well. The Panel Chair is responsible for sending decisions to the parties.
All decisions are made public on CPATA’s website, in the monthly newsletter for licensees and the public, and are published on the CanLII decision database. CPATA’s Public Register is updated to reflect accurate information about your licence, including any conditions on practice, or suspension or revocation of your licence.
A party to an application may appeal a decision of the Discipline Panel to the Federal Court within 30 days of the date of the decision.