The Lawyer Abuse blog opens its sixth year with a look at
blog visitor analytics for the past five years and some comments on blogs in
general with the subject of lawyer misconduct.
This blog was created in February 2014 and chronicles a
plaintiff's litigation against two rogue Gowlings lawyers, Megan McMahon and Taryn
Burnett, who were opposing defence counsel in the plaintiff's underlying medical malpractice case. This blog discusses McMahon and Burnett's serious abuse of the
plaintiff outside their defendant client's interests, and
their repeated abuse of court processes that put the administration of justice
into disrepute, among other wrongdoing causing damages. McMahon and Burnett
engaged in this conduct throughout, and apart from, the litigation against their defendant client, Dr. Peter Whidden, who injured the
plaintiff requiring her to undergo multiple surgeries. McMahon and Burnett
continue to engage in this conduct in the present litigation against them.
This blog presents updates in this litigation and related
matters, plaintiff evidence and court filings, and commentary on related topics
of interest.
Here are some readership statistics for the Lawyer Abuse
blog based on aggregated and anonymous Google Analytics data. (Click to enlarge graphs)
Readership of this blog has increased each year since
inception, as shown in this graph. There were 643 pageviews in 2014 and 2,456
pageviews in 2018.
Here is the distribution of pageviews by province over the period 2014-2018.
The most visited blog page or post to date is the home page, referred to below with the blog post title of simply "Lawyer Abuse". Here are the five most viewed blog posts in each of the last two years.
Most
Viewed Blog Posts (Canada) – 2017, 2018
2017
|
2018
|
|
1.
|
||
2.
|
||
3.
|
||
4.
|
||
5.
|
On a broader subject of blogs in general about specific
lawyer misconduct and sometimes litigation that arises from the misconduct, a
web search will yield a number of these type of blogs. There are many ethical
lawyers but it can not be ignored that the bad apples still largely shape the
public's perception of the legal profession, and this is evident in blogs and
social media. It is worth noting that Gowlings lawyers seem to get a lot of
negative mention online, independent of this blog.
In a recent decision in an unrelated case, Kent v Martin,
2016 ABQB 314, the court commented on that plaintiff's blog which chronicled his
litigation and largely focused on misconduct and defamation stemming from yet
another (now former) Gowlings lawyer Kristine Robidoux. The court found that
the blog and its reference to the problem material litigated to be an
acceptable and legitimate strategy by persons who perceive themselves defamed.
The court stated:
[278] Mr. Kent dedicated his website from October 2008 until the trial commenced to providing his response to the Article and chronicling the progress of the litigation. He published 63 posts totaling 241 pages on his website. A PDF version of the Article was available on the website until access to the Article was suppressed by the Defendants on their database in November 2012. Commencing in 2011, he provided links on his website that could be clicked on to view the Article on a Postmedia website.
[279] The Defendants submit that these actions of drawing attention to the Article were not consistent with someone who believed he had suffered an injury to his reputation.
[280] Based on Mr. Kent’s testimony, I am satisfied that he believed that his reputation was significantly damaged by the Article and that his aggressive response to the Article reflected a genuine attempt by him to clear his name. While his approach would not likely be that adopted by all persons who perceived themselves defamed, it should be viewed as a legitimate strategy.
