Roger Balraj Singh Bhatti

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

Roger Balraj Singh Bhatti, a former BC lawyer, entered a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement (approved March 15, 2023) admitting professional misconduct for knowingly creating and submitting forged/false medical notes and false evidence to the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada across numerous client matters between 2002 and 2014. He had pleaded guilty to related criminal offences and was sentenced to 22 months incarceration. Under the consent agreement he resigned from the Law Society and undertook never to apply for reinstatement or to practise law. The decision expressly found dishonest/deceptive conduct (knowingly creating false documents to deceive the IRB).

Duties found breached:

• Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
• Handle inadvertently received material

Aggravating factors:

• Pattern of misconduct over many years (2002-2014) across multiple client matters
• Criminal convictions: three counts of forgery, six counts of uttering forged documents, eight counts of misrepresentation; sentenced to 22 months incarceration
• Dated professional conduct record including two Practice Standards referrals, two conduct reviews, a citation, and a limitation on practice

Mitigating factors:

• Severe and chronic major depressive disorder at the time of misconduct, amplified by workaholism
• Condition linked to aversive childhood/family experiences
• Exceedingly low risk of re-offending; misconduct atypical and aberrant for his personality
• Law practice that gave rise to offending had come to an end