February 23, 2023Back to Latest

At the Feb. 23, 2023 Board meeting, the Benchers approved amendments to provision 3.2-8 of the Code of Conduct, as well as the associated commentary. These are in addition to the approved amendment to provision 3.2-7 at the December 2022 meeting.

The further amendments and expanded commentary strengthen the Code to ensure lawyers inform their clients of their language rights.

Key highlights of the amendments include:

• a lawyer should advise the client of the client’s language rights as soon as possible;
• the choice of official language is that of the client, not the lawyer; and
• a lawyer should ensure that they have the competency to effectively communicate with the client in such a way as to understand and be understood by the client.

View the Code of Conduct for the full amendments.

The Practice Advisors will release a resource on the amended Code of Conduct provisions 3.2-7 and 3.2-8 and the associated commentary in the coming months.