Victoria police's legal fees have been double what they should be for the last three years, because of two expensive civil lawsuits, a public inquest and a drawn-out labour arbitration.
The police board budgets $175,000 for legal fees, but for the last three years, those fees have averaged around $300,000, Deputy Chief Bill Naughton said. "I think we can expect that figure will likely continue."
In 2007 and 2008, the department spent $307,000 and $317,000 respectively on lawyers. In those two years, Victoria police was hit with two high-profile civil suits, brought by Thomas McKay and Willow Kinloch, both of whom say they were mistreated while in police custody.
McKay, a Camosun College student, sued the department in 2007 because he suffered permanent brain damage when Const. Greg Smith pushed him head-first into a concrete floor in the jail-cell area in April 2004. The department settled for an undisclosed amount.
In May 2005, then-15-year-old Willow Kinloch accused jail staff of using excessive force when they tethered her to her cell. She sued and while her lawyer offered to settle for $40,000, police lawyers did not respond and the case went to civil litigation. A jury determined police did not use excessive force but awarded Kinloch $60,000 in punitive damages, a decision the police department appealed, settling out of court for an undisclosed amount.
sa国际传媒 Supreme Court Justice James Williams ruled that Victoria police had to pay Kinloch's legal fees. The department also had to pay for a lawyer to represent Smith during a hearing by sa国际传媒's Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. It will have to do the same during the upcoming public hearing for the Kinloch case, a date for which has yet to be set. Victoria police board controller Scott Seivewright could not break down the cost of each case.
Also in 2007 and 2008, a major union arbitration set the department back significantly. Over the two years, the department spent $100,000 to be represented by a lawyer in arbitration, after jail-cell commissionaires argued successfully that they were employees of the police department.
Last year, the department had to pay for lawyers to counsel Victoria police officers testifying in the 10-day coroner's inquest into why Peter Lee was released on bail two months before he killed four family members and himself in their Oak Bay home Sept. 4, 2007.
This year, legal fees are projected to be $275,000. A large chunk of that was spent hiring a lawyer to help draft new policies for jail cells and conflict of interest, Seivewright said.
Both policies could reduce future lawsuits, Naughton said. The department asked for budget increases in 2008 and 2009, he said, but was twice turned down by its board.
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin, chairman of the police board, said the key to reducing costs is taking steps to avoid liability. "You do your best job to ballpark but probably most importantly is when you see issues that could raise legal liability you take action to reduce that."
The department tried to hire its own lawyer last year, offering a salary of $100,000 a year, Naughton said, but it was hard to find a lawyer who could specialize in a variety of areas, such as labour and civil law. He said the department hopes to put a law firm on retainer. "The costs are rising, partly because we are becoming a more litigious society," Naughton said.
