Judge’s order that Ontario pay more to two court-appointed lawyers overturned
TORONTO — An Ontario justice overstepped his authority when he ordered the attorney general to pay two lawyers the rates they wanted for helping out in a case involving a brutal child-custody dispute, the province’s top court ruled Tuesday.
The Court of Appeal also found that the judge had no authority to stay the proceedings after the attorney general balked at negotiating with the lawyers, who refused to work for legal aid rates.
The case arose in a custody dispute between Melinda Morwald-Benevides and Jeffrey Benevides involving their three children. Both spouses represented themselves and, by all accounts, the proceedings were fractious, toxic and complex, according to court records.
For example, Benevides, who lives in Bermuda, accused his wife of turning the children against him, while Morwald-Benevides alleged domestic violence against her husband. She fired five lawyers before trial and refused to testify when her husband was in the courtroom. On the first day of trial in Ontario court in April 2014, Morwald-Benevides was nearly “hysterical,” the documents state. She collapsed in court and an ambulance took her to hospital.