CPABC Investigations? Legal Support for Chartered Professional Accountants

If you are a chartered professional accountant (“CPA”) facing a Chartered Professional Accountant of British Columbia (the “CPABC”) disciplinary action, you know the stakes are high – your professional reputation and license to practice are on the line. You want to be prepared to protect your career and have the right support, but the question is, where do you start?

This article is your starting point for learning what to expect in a CPABC disciplinary action, but it is not a substitute for legal advice tailored to your case.

It is strongly recommended that you obtain legal advice as early as possible. With experienced legal counsel by your side, you can navigate the complex rules and disciplinary process with confidence. They will help you understand your rights and obligations, prepare effective responses, and provide effective advocacy.

Taylor Janis Workplace Law offers legal support to all professionals facing regulatory challenges across BC. Contact us at our Vancouver or Kamloops office today to schedule a consultation.

The Disciplinary Powers of the CPABC

The Regulatory Role of the CPABC

Under the Chartered Professional Accountants Act (the “Act”), the Organization of Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia is the statutory regulatory body for CPAs, and it is conferred with broad regulatory discretion and powers to regulate the profession.

One of the CPABC’s objectives is to protect the public interest. Therefore, CPABC members are held to a high standard of professional conduct. Notably, such standards are also applicable to students enrolled in CPABC programs.

The CPABC has legal power to enforce professional standards and discipline its members by issuing legally-binding decisions or obtaining court orders. The CPABC has broad discretion in ordering disciplinary measures against its members if it finds a member to be incompetent, unfit to practice, has committed professional misconduct or conduct unbecoming as a member, or has in other ways contravened the CPABC’s rules.

The Disciplinary Measures of the CPABC

The range of disciplinary measures available to the CPABC is broad, and being disciplined can put a CPA’s finances, career and reputation in serious jeopardy.

Upon an adverse disciplinary determination, the CPABC can order one or more of the following disciplinary sanctions:

1. A reprimand;
2. Suspension of membership;
3. Revocation of membership;
4. Prohibition on future application of membership by a former member for specified periods or until certain conditions are met;
5. Imposition of conditions on the continuance of membership; and
6. A fine of up to $25,000 against a Chartered Accountant, up to $4,000 against a student, or up to $100,000 against a firm.

The Reputational Implications

A disciplinary action can not only result in financial and career consequences, but also widespread and long-lasting reputational damage. Reputational harm can emerge during a disciplinary process before a final determination is made.

Discipline records of members are made public on the CPABC’s website, via the publication of Resolutions of Discipline Proceedings and Investigation Committee Determinations and Recommendations. Moreover, suspension of membership or other relatively severe disciplinary decisions worthy of public notice are also reflected in the CPABC member directory search, easily accessible by prospective clients.

Assess and Mitigate Risks with Legal Advice

Regulatory actions are intricate, and the perspectives of parties often diverge. Hence, even a seemingly trivial or unfounded matter may lead to unexpected consequences.

When you are under the CPABC’s regulatory scrutiny, you should promptly obtain legal advice. This is to ensure that you have adequate legal guidance to assess and mitigate potential risks.

Your Duties as a CPABC Member/ Defending against an Alleged Breach

As a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), your professional conduct is governed by a complex framework of legislation, regulations, the CPABC Bylaws (the “Bylaws”) and Bylaw Regulations. The CPABC has the authority to investigate complaints against its members to ensure compliance with professional standards and ethical practices.

One of the most direct source of a CPA’s professional obligations is the CPABC Code of Professional Conduct. However, a literal interpretation of what’s contained within is not the end-all be-all of understanding a CPA’s duties or defending against an allegation of breach. This is because:

• A CPABC member is also bound by an overarching duty to conduct themselves pursuant to the law (statutory or common law) at all times.
• Carrying out your duties as a professional may involve exercising your best judgments beyond reading the black-letter rules (e.g., what should a firm do to address a remote possibility of conflict of interests? When should a possibility of conflict be considered too remote to be acted on?).
• Exercising professional duties may also have an ethical component and require principled judgments.
  • Correspondingly, when the CPABC exercises its “quasi-judicial” discretion in determining the outcome of an investigation or disciplinary hearing, its decision is also informed by principled ethical and public-interest considerations.
• Disciplinary decisions are ultimately based on facts substantiated by records and evidence. The complainant and the respondent might have diverging views on the facts, and each may present competing evidence to support their claims.

Hence, the legal and factual merits of an allegation against a CPA can often be intensely disputed. The takeaway here is: strategic response and effective legal representation throughout the investigatory and disciplinary procedures can affect the outcome, and legal counsel can play an important role in safeguarding your career and reputation.

Navigating the Disciplinary Procedures of the CPABC

When undergoing a CPABC regulatory action, understanding the procedures involved is crucial. Having legal counsel helps you navigate the stress and complexity. Your lawyer also safeguards your right to procedural fairness, which is often integral to ensuring a fair outcome.

The complaint, investigation and discipline procedures of the CPABC are structured with fairness and transparency in mind. Nonetheless, navigating these processes can often be complex and intimidating.

Under the Act, the CPABC has the power to make its own bylaws to govern its internal investigatory and disciplinary procedures, which adds to the complexity for someone who is inexperienced with these processes.

A Brief Overview of the Key Procedures

Any person can file a complaint with the CPABC. Once a complaint has been received, the CPABC must commence an investigation unless the complaint is declined under one of the limited grounds provided under the Bylaws.

During an investigation, the CPABC may request information and documents from you. They may also conduct interviews with you and/or other relevant parties. You have a duty to cooperate, but also a need to avoid inadvertently jeopardizing your case.

You may also be subjected to a formal Disciplinary Committee hearing, which is a quasi-judicial proceeding and can be highly intimidating to navigate. This is because:

• A hearing is an adversarial process.
  • Decisions are based on the relative strength of the factual and legal positions of the parties. Hence, extensive preparation is often necessary to achieving a favourable outcome
• You may be compelled (ordered) to testify under oath.
  • You may be subjected to examination (being intensely scrutinized with questions), so preparedness and awareness of common pitfalls are key.
  • Failure to comply may result in severe legal consequences.
• Hearings are open to the public.
  • Reputational harm may start to radiate even before a final decision is made, especially if you are underprepared or act in ways that prejudice yourself.

Once a disciplinary decision is made, there is a limited opportunity and time window (30 days) for you to apply for a “binding opinion.” This is similar to an internal appeal process, which has its own procedural complexities, and the threshold for overturning a decision is high.

Seek Legal Advice Promptly

Your right to fairness is engaged throughout all stages of a disciplinary process, and these issues may affect your ability to make a full answer and defence to the allegations against you and the substantive fairness of the outcome.

It is important to be proactive and to seek legal advice early in the process to make sure you understand your rights and obligations. A lawyer experienced in professional regulatory matters can navigate you through the complex procedures and safeguard your rights, enhancing the chance of a favourable outcome.

Your Rights when Facing a CPABC Disciplinary Process

When undergoing a CPABC disciplinary process, your right to fairness is constantly engaged. Your rights are informed by administrative law, common law, and even the Constitution, and the procedures affecting them can be found in the Act as well as the Bylaws.

Given the multiplicity of the sources of entitlements and the complexity of procedures, it is practically impossible to have a complete list of things that you are entitled to during each stage of the process. However, to summarize it for informational purposes, you have three broad but distinct rights:

• The right to procedural fairness.
  • This essentially means you are entitled to know the particulars of the allegations against you and have an opportunity to make a full answer and defence.
  • The CPABC should conduct due process in accordance with the Act and the Bylaws. Crucially, an infringement can take place when there is a lack of due process or when due process is conducted unfairly.
  • Hence, it may require both legal knowlegde and an in-depth analysis of the decision-making process to legally challenge an infringement.
• The right to unbiased decision makers.
  • A decision and its making process should not raise a reasonable apprehension of bias to a reasonably informed third party observing the the decision-making process.
  • If you believe your decision maker is biased, it is not enough to simply express your grief. It is necessary to present both evidence and legal arguments to prove that bias was present. A lawyer might be better equipped to deal with this.
• The right to substantive fairness:
  • This means a disciplinary decision’s legal reasoning and fact-finding must meet certain standards.
  • Under the Act, a disciplinary decision may be appealed to the BC Court of Appeal on a question of law or jurisdiction. Other types of issues can be judicially reviewed.
  • Under the landmark Supreme Court of Canada Vavilov decision, “reasonableness” standards apply to judicial reviews. To put it briefly, a reasonable decision must be made with regard to all relevant evidence and laws, and it must be rationally coherent and not arbitrary.
  • For an appeal, the appellate standards are the same as those applicable to an appeal from a lower court. In short, this means legal reasoning must be correct and fact-finding must be free from palpable and overriding errors (Housen).
  • Both standards involve complex legal tests and stringent factual thresholds.

The ideal approach to safeguarding your rights during a disciplinary action is to retain legal counsel early and have them engaged with the entire process. This is for a few reasons:

• You should ensure that your defence is robust during a disciplinary proceeding.
  • Generally, in a regulatory action, the respondent has the responsibility of preparing their response to an allegation. This means that a suboptimal decision reached because of a suboptimal response can be seen as reasonable.
• It is a monumental challenge to overturn a decision.
  • Both an appeal and a judicial review involve complex procedures and highly technical legal tests.
  • Moreover, courts are required to pay deference to regulatory decision makers out of respect for legislative intent.
• Damage may continue to occur during an appeal/judicial review process.
  • An appeal/ judicial review does not automatically pause the enforcement of a disciplinary decision.
  • Moreover, even if an appeal/judicial review is successful, the remedy might be that the matter is sent back to the CPABC to be redetermined.

Therefore, when facing a disciplinary action by the CPABC, it is highly recommended that you retain a lawyer throughout the entire process, as they can spot, flag and object to potential infringements as they arise, thus ensuring a fair outcome.

Importance of Legal Representation

CPABC disciplinary decisions will have legally binding and long-lasting effects. The disciplinary procedures involved are complex (and necessarily so). For each step of the way, your right to fairness is constantly engaged.

Hence, legal assistance from a lawyer experienced in regulatory action can be highly valuable for safeguarding your rights and career.

Taylor Janis Workplace Law, with offices in Vancouver and Kamloops, has a proven track record in helping professionals navigate regulatory challenges. We appreciate the intricacies of disciplinary actions; we also understand that every case and each client’s needs are different. This is why we are committed to offering tailored legal plans.

You should not face a CPABC investigation alone. Contact us today to schedule an initial consult as the first step of having a tailored legal service package.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Represent Myself in Front of the CPABC?

You can represent yourself in front of the CPABC, but it is not recommended. Complex regulatory issues often require legal acumen to navigate. Without it, you may risk inadvertently jeopardizing your case, missing opportunities to reach a favourable and expedited resolution, or missing critical legal defences that you may not be able to bring forward later in the process. You should seek professional legal help instead of unnecessarily risking it alone.

How Long Does a CPABC Disciplinary Process Typically Take?

This depends on various factors, including the factual and legal merits and complexity of the complaint. A vexatious or frivolous complaint is likely to be declined fairly quickly. However, if a complaint results in an investigation or a hearing, it may take upwards of a few months or even over a year to resolve. How you respond to the situation is also critical, as a robust and legally informed response early on can lead to expedited and favourable resolution. Contact Taylor Janis today if you have concerns about the disruptive effects of the CPABC disciplinary process.

Will Hiring a Lawyer Harm My Professional Reputation?

Our perspective and experience are that hiring a lawyer will harm your professional reputation. On the contrary, it shows that you are taking your integrity and the allegations seriously. It also shows that you are taking proactive steps to protect your reputation, which may discourage a meritless matter from being processed further. When navigating a regulatory action, you deserve skilled legal representation.

Conclusion

If you are facing a CPABC investigation as a Chartered Professional Accountant, seeking legal support is highly beneficial. The CPABC has statutory regulatory powers to make legally binding disciplinary decisions against its members, and its disciplinary measures can put a CPA’s finances, reputation and professional standing at serious risk. The disciplinary process involves highly complex and consequential procedures, which also engage essential administrative law rights to fairness. Early and ongoing engagement with legal representation can be highly beneficial for mitigating potential risks, navigating the procedural complexities and mounting an effective defence. These all play important roles in safeguarding a CPA’s career and reputation.

References:

• Chartered Professional Accountants Act [SBC 2015] CHAPTER 1
• Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) v. Vavilov, 2019 SCC 65 (CanLII), [2019] 4 SCR 653
• Housen v. Nikolaisen, 2002 SCC 33 (CanLII), [2002] 2 SCR 235
• Bylaws of the Organization of Chartered Professional Accountants of British Columbia
• CPABC Bylaw Regulations
• CPABC Code of Professional Conduct

Resources for readers:

• Published CPABC discipline summaries
• Description of Investigation and Discipline Process (By the CPABC)

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