I would be grateful for any help to contact her

Just a quick note: the URL you cite in the article above has changed. Please update your link to “The Ismaili Equation”: http://www.bcbusinessonline.ca/node/283

Thanks and best,

John Bucher
Digital Editor, BCBusiness

You have just mentioned Mobina Jaffer!! Check the article above! The article in North Shore says

Senator faces lawsuit

Jane Seyd

jseyd@nsnews.com

The law firm of Liberal Senator Mobina Jaffer is being sued by an order of Catholic priests for allegedly improperly billing them almost $6.8 million to fight charges connected to native residential schools run by the priests.

The lawsuit claims the Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a Catholic order of priests who take a vow of poverty, were overcharged by Jaffer, her son Azool Jaffer-Jeraj, and their law firm, Dohm, Jaffer and Jeraj, in defending the priests against allegations of sexual and physical abuse.

Among the allegations outlined in their lawsuit, the Oblates claim that in some cases, Jaffer’s law firm submitted bills for work by Jaffer and Jaffer-Jeraj “in excess of 24 hours a day.” In one instance, Jaffer submitted a bill for 22 hours of work in one day, according to the lawsuit, while Jaffer-Jeraj’s bill including “billing for over 10 hours per day” for every regular weekday between March 1, 2003 and March 22, 2005, according to the documents filed in court.

The Oblates have also alleged they were charged an “unreasonable high rate” for much of the work, including $450 an hour by Jaffer, and $200 an hour by Jaffer-Jeraj, despite his inexperience at the time, plus charges of up to $100 per hour for secretarial work.

The lawsuit also alleges the Oblates were billed multiple times for the same work by Jaffer’s law firm and in some cases were billed for work performed by staff members prior to them actually joining the law firm.

The priests continued to pay the bills up until the fall of 2004, then decided to switch lawyers. But according to the lawsuit, Jaffer’s law company refused to hand over the files on the Oblates’ cases. Instead, the Oblates claimed in their lawsuit, the senator’s law firm handed the priests a bill at the end of March for over half a million dollars.

According to the Oblates, except for 15 months, Jaffer and Jaffer-Jeraj were the only lawyers working on their cases in the five years between January of 2000 and January of 2005 – when the bill of almost $6.8 million was rung up.

The Oblates are seeking an order from the court forcing Jaffer’s law firm to hand over their files to the priests’ new lawyers. They are also asking for all money improperly billed to be paid back to them, and for damages for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of trust and misrepresentation.

“We have retained lawyers and we’re going to court. Obviously we don’t agree with (the allegations),” said Jaffer. “This is not a thing that I’d like to fight in the media. It’s best if it’s resolved in the courts.”

Her law company is preparing a statement of defence, she said. “Obviously this will all come out in our reply.”

Jaffer said she has been the Oblates’ lawyer for the past 15 years and has handled “thousands” of claims for them. “We’ve done some very good work for them,” she said.

Jaffer said she was surprised by the lawsuit, but added, “I don’t ever badmouth people. I worked for them for 15 years and I don’t want to speak badly of people I worked for.”

Prior to her appointment as a senator in 2001, Jaffer was an active member of the Liberal Party in North Vancouver, where she ran unsuccessfully for election in 1993.

She was also vice-president of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1994 to 1998.

Ravi Hira, the Oblates’ new lawyer, refused to comment on the case.

A woman who answered the phone at Oblate House in Vancouver said “there’s no one here that wishes to speak about this at this time.”

posted on 05/06/2005