A civil lawsuit filed by Norfolk County’s former lawyer against the administration is lumbering along in court with back and forth accusations, cease and desist letters and claims each side is using social media to win points.
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Filed November 2021, the suit by former county solicitor Paula Boutis claims almost a million dollars in wages and damages from Norfolk County, its board of health, the health unit, former Mayor Kristal Chopp and former CAO Jason Burgess.
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Boutis, who worked for the county for two years, filed an original statement of claim – which has not been examined in court yet – alleging actions taken against her in the workplace were “unconscionable, malicious and vicious.”
The detailed filing indicates Boutis felt overwhelmed by work and undermined by Chopp who, she alleges, didn’t believe an in-house lawyer was necessary and sometimes tried to interfere in legal matters with citizens.
The county has filed a statement of defense with the court – also unproven as yet — denying the allegations and saying Boutis wasn’t up to the many jobs she was handling for the county and had “only an easy understanding of municipal governance policy and operations .”
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Boutis had a 17-year private practice, was a member of the Ontario Municipal Board for two years and chaired the environmental law branch of the Ontario Bar Association. She was the municipal integrity commissioner of Cambridge.
In December, the former county solicitor filed a third amended statement of claim, saying the administration was a “toxic workplace” under then-mayor Chopp where at least 10 staff resigned or moved on, one person with no job to go to.
Boutis indicated many of the changes were made due to new information that was revealed during discovery and a new lawyer on her case.
In the documents, Boutis chronicles incidents alleging Chopp shouted at others and exhibited “abusive conduct.”
After Boutis left the job, she alleges the mayor gave a reporter the impression Boutis had been fired because she relied too much on outside law firms and didn’t save the county money – which Boutis said she has clearly disproved.
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Finally, Boutis’s latest claim alleges the conduct of Chopp and CAO Jason Burgess, who left the job in the summer of 2021, was “flagrant and outrageous” and “deliberately calculated to cause harm”.
Boutis accuses Burgess of shielding Chopp from accountability.
The many revised claims of Boutis led Clarence Bennett, the lawyer for Chopp and Burgess, to complain to Boutis’s lawyer: “This is an exception case, where the defendants seem more interested in moving this matter to trial than the plaintiff.”
According to the court filings, Bennett wrote that Boutis “appears to have an insatiable appetite for pre-trial procedures and amendments which has made the claim a moving target with each amendment more far-fetched than the last.”
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Norfolk County administration and Chopp declined to comment about updates on the lawsuit but former CAO Burgess said he wished the public could read the “extensive” discovery transcripts that have been filed so far.
“As you know, anyone can say anything in a statement of claim. In discovery you get questioned on your claims and that is where the rubber hits the road and that is the real story.”
Boutis has been quick to take some of her lawsuit information to social media, where she has posted updates about the case.
Responses on Facebook include this one: “Good for you. Keep up the fight. They need to be put in their places.”
Another response was a motion of contempt for allegedly revealing confidential information, filed by the county but later withdrawn.
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The county sent a cease and desist request in December 2021, accusing Boutis of breaching rules about publicizing details received during the court process.
Boutis’s lawyer responded by letter, saying “the allegations and threats are absurd” as the discovery process hadn’t begun and sent a cease and desist demand against Chopp for allegedly defaming her client in the media.
A Boutis acquaintance filed a Freedom of Information request to the county about how much it was spending on outside legal fees since Boutis left and shared the information with her.
Boutis posted that on a popular community Facebook page writing “Not even I could have imagined the numbers.”
The former in-house solicitor posted that the county is spending far more on external legal fees since not replacing her at the end of 2021, with work going to a variety of firms.
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Those costs are concerning, wrote Boutis, as the county has already projected that without “monumental changes” to certain capital projects, it will have the highest rate debt outstanding in the province.
“All this at a time when the county has just learned through a study that its residents earn less and spend more on services,” wrote Boutis, who advocated Norfolk get an “appropriately staffed in-house” legal team as soon as possible.
“It is literally the only way.
“The (current) Mayor is advocating for county staff to investigate alternate provincial funding. I think the county has some inward work to do, too.”
Meanwhile, the court case continues with endless arguing over editorials, dates for discovery and threats of contempt.
The court file has grown to more than 1,000 pages and motions will be heard in court in June.
@EXPSGamble
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