Fabricated escrow story didn't help this fiduciary duty case at the BC Supreme Court.
A British Columbia lawyer who steered wealthy clients into real estate deals while hiding his own insolvency must now pay $2.75 million in costs.
The BC Supreme Court's decision issued September 3, 2026, closes out a long-running fiduciary duty case against Lindsay Ross, a lawyer formerly licensed to practice in the province.
The underlying trial found that Ross solicited several of his own clients to invest in two commercial real estate projects, a Travelodge Hotel in Sidney and a complex known as Parkside in Victoria, while acting as their solicitor on the deals. Ross, his wife Joanne Ross, and his law firm, L.A.C. Ross Law Corporation, were insolvent throughout the period he was structuring the investments, the court found, and he did not disclose that to his clients. The structures he designed gave entities tied to him a superior ownership position in both projects, without the required financial contributions being made, and without his clients' knowledge. When the shortfall surfaced after closing, Ross offered an explanation involving an escrow agreement that the court later found never existed.
In trial reasons issued August 6, 2024 (2024 BCSC 1436), the court ruled in the clients' favor. A December 6, 2024 costs decision (2024 BCSC 2217) went further, finding the defendants' conduct during litigation reprehensible and ordering special costs against Ross, his firm, My Wee World Enterprises Inc. and Joanne Ross.
This ruling settles the dollar amount of those special costs. Rather than send the question to a registrar, the plaintiffs asked the trial judge, Madam Justice V. Jackson, to fix the amount herself under Rule 14-1(15). She agreed, citing her familiarity with the case and concerns that a registrar's hearing, estimated at seven days, would face lengthy delays in Victoria. She awarded the full sum sought in the plaintiffs' Bill of Special Costs: $2,402,498.74 in fees plus applicable GST and PST, and disbursements totaling $59,326.69 with GST, for an aggregate of $2,750,125.28, payable jointly and severally.
Justice Jackson pointed to the case's scale in reaching that figure: a 50-day trial, a notice of claim running more than 90 pages, and real estate assets the defendants themselves valued at more than $10 million. She also found a contingent fee arrangement between the plaintiffs and their counsel, under which fees were banked at half rate and paid at double if the case succeeded, was fair and reasonable. Delays caused by the defendants, including document disclosure that arrived years late, factored into the total time billed.
Justice Jackson found the request to draft that fictional escrow document was "a sham and a desperate effort" to conceal Ross's default.
For wealth professionals, the case shows how steep the price gets when a lawyer or advisor steers clients into private deals while holding an undisclosed financial stake and concealing personal insolvency: exposure that compounds well past the original judgment once litigation conduct is factored into costs.
