Last week Diamond & Diamond was unmasked by the Toronto Star Reporter, Michele Henry. She unveiled lewd text messages between lawyer Jeremy Diamond and a staff member and revealed that the firm operated mostly as a referral service. Meaning that the firm advertised to the public and then referred the cases to other law firms for a fee.
Her articles raised more questions than answers to me.
- Michele Henry is a food reporter with the Toronto Star. Why did she feel compelled to write about law firms all of the sudden?
- Why write about this now? Was she tipped off? Who tipped her off? What were their motivations? Or has she been investigating this independently for months?
- Will Michele Henry investigate other law firms? Diamond & Diamond is not the only firm that feeds off referral fees. Will she take on the other law firms that advertise on TV?
- Diamond & Diamond has been feeding off referral fees for years. Other lawyers have known about this for years. Did lawyers have an obligation to blow the whistle? Are personal injury/ insurance defence lawyers complicit in Diamond & Diamond’s scheme?
- Assuming advertising needs to be controlled, with the ubiquity of the internet, how do we control lawyers’ advertising?
- And lastly, will reporters look into law firms’ connections with hospitals? (Some law firms get client referrals directly from hospital employees. And is that source of referrals ethical?)
You must be logged in to post a comment.