Sonia Sukhdeesh Hayer

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

Sonia S. Hayer, a BC lawyer, entered a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement admitting misconduct arising from a fake bank draft fraud in 2016 that caused a $150,000+ trust shortage. She failed to make reasonable inquiries, failed to obtain proper client ID, failed to report the trust shortage, permitted a non-lawyer to sign trust cheques and use her Juricert digital signature, and made false/misleading representations to the Law Society including altering three pleadings to support false explanations. The Lawyer expressly admitted she had been dishonest. She agreed to a six-month suspension commencing June 1, 2021 and undertook never again to work with her designated paralegal.

Duties found breached:

• Handle inadvertently received material
• Honesty
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• No improper use of client money
• Not mislead third parties or opponents

Aggravating factors:

• Made multiple false or misleading representations to the Law Society during the investigation
• Altered three pleadings and provided falsified documents to the Law Society
• Multiple red flags ignored in the fraudulent transaction

Mitigating factors:

• No prior Professional Conduct Record
• Was the unwitting victim of a fraud scam
• Covered the trust shortage within seven days by borrowing money
• Eventually admitted wrongdoing and expressed sincere remorse
• Tightened office procedures and now follows client ID/verification rules
• Entered into a consent agreement