Monte William Prior

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

Monte W. Prior, a BC lawyer, entered a Rule 3-7.1 consent agreement approved August 18, 2022, admitting professional misconduct. Over 2018-2020, in 55 client matters he held $759,934.93 in trust funds too long, kept his own funds in trust, and failed to timely remit GST ($33,895.53) and PST ($46,812.04). No dishonesty or misappropriation was found; all funds were his own or taxes owed. He agreed to pay a $20,000 fine and had a prior related conduct review.

Duties found breached:

• Segregate client money
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Prior conduct review arising from the same January 2020 compliance audit regarding improper use of firm's trust account

Mitigating factors:

• No misappropriation of client funds
• Client monies were never involved or exposed to risk (all funds were the Lawyer's or taxes owed)
• Conduct not motivated by bad faith
• Cooperative with Law Society and made early and fulsome admissions
• Remorseful and acknowledged misconduct
• Outstanding PST and GST fully paid by July/August 2020