Monte William Prior

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

Monte W. Prior, a BC lawyer called in 1990, entered a consent agreement approved August 18, 2022 admitting professional misconduct for misusing his trust account across 55 client matters by holding $759,934.93 in trust funds (fees, GST, PST) for extended periods (60-565 days past final invoice), keeping his own funds in trust, and failing to remit GST ($33,895.53) and PST ($46,812.04) in a timely way. He paid the outstanding taxes by mid-2020. No dishonesty or misappropriation was found. He agreed to pay a $20,000 fine.

Duties found breached:

• 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 trust account (~$63,000)

Mitigating factors:

• No misappropriation of client funds
• Client monies not exposed to risk; funds were Lawyer's own or taxes owing
• 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