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 three forged medical notes, submitting six false medical notes to obtain adjournments, and submitting eight false documents as evidence to deceive the Immigration and Refugee Board across numerous client matters (2002-2014). He had pleaded guilty to forgery, uttering forged documents, and IRPA misrepresentation and was sentenced to 22 months incarceration. He agreed to resign and undertook never to apply for reinstatement or practise law in BC. No fine or costs were stated.

Duties found breached:

• Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonourable conduct involving knowing forgery and deception of a tribunal (IRB) across numerous client matters over more than a decade
• Criminal convictions: three counts of forgery, six counts of uttering forged documents, eight counts of misrepresentation under IRPA, resulting in 22 months incarceration
• Directed an interpreter/translator to create false evidence
• Existing dated professional conduct record (two Practice Standards referrals, two conduct reviews, a citation, a practice limitation)

Mitigating factors:

• Psychological report showing a severe and chronic major depressive disorder amplified by workaholism at the time of the misconduct
• Conduct found atypical and aberrant for his personality; strong conscience with willful blindness impairing judgment
• Assessed as exceedingly low risk to re-offend, as offending arose from a law practice that had ended
• Undertaking consistent with outcomes in prior similar matters