B.C. lawyer suspended for just 3 months after assault that hospitalized client he was dating

Scales of justice. (Shutterstock)

A Vancouver-area lawyer with a history of professional misconduct was suspended for just three months after admitting to the assault of a romantic partner whom he represented in the break-up of her common law relationship.

Michael Ranspot's three-month suspension, which begins at the end of May, was announced by the Law Society of British Columbia last week. 

In a news release, the Law Society Tribunal said it found the West Vancouver lawyer had a conflict of interest when he acted for a client with whom he was in a personal relationship. Documents published by the tribunal show that this relationship was with a woman whom he had represented during the break-up of her common law marriage.

He'd represented her in family law proceedings from March 2013 through December 2015. According to the tribunal's decision on facts and determination, he'd been in a relationship with the woman for about a year when he started to represent her, but they'd met years before, when she contacted him for legal advice.

Ranspot, who was called to the bar in 1985, did not actually represent the woman at trial, but assisted her legal team and incurred disbursements on her behalf. When the woman's former partner filed a notice of appeal, Ranspot did act as her counsel.

The tribunal also found conflict of interest in his decision to loan her money without ensuring she'd sought legal advice from an independent party.

The decision followed a guilty plea from Ranspot to assault causing bodily harm in a case involving the same client. The tribunal's decision on facts and determination said the altercation happened on New Year's Eve, 2015, and that Ranspot was charged the next day. He pleaded guilty in November 2016, and during his sentencing trial, it was agreed that the relationship had been "at times, volatile," and that the woman's injuries were bad enough that she was hospitalized.

The court heard the woman had a lump on the right side of her head, a laceration at her left eye tear duct, an abrasion below her eye to her cheekbone, and bruising on her forehead, jaw, elbow, tricep and calf.

When Ranspot turned himself in to police he too had bruises, as well as a bite mark on his thumb and scratches on his wrist and upper-right back.

Police said they noted broken glass, an upended coffee table and blood smeared on the carpet when they attended the scene of the assault.

Ranspot was handed a conditional discharge in 2017, a sentence that included a 16-month probation order and the completion of a corrections program.

"In the circumstances, the hearing panel found that his actions constitute conduct unbecoming a lawyer," the tribunal said.

The penalty it deemed fit was a three-month suspension. The tribunal said it took Ranspot's history into account, including two previous findings of professional misconduct, but also gave weight to the fact that he pleaded guilty.

According to the tribunal, it also considered that Ranspot completed the conditions outlined by his trial judge, and participated in counselling sessions for more than two years. 

Still, it found he committed professional misconduct, and imposed a brief suspension. The law society suggested a four-month suspension and Ranspot suggested to weeks to a month.

The tribunal settled on three months, a far cry from what the assault victim urged the panel to impose: a suspension of 18 months or more.

He's also been ordered to pay $12,087.24 in costs to the law society.