Two ongoing civil claims against lawyer and Liberal candidate for Steveston-Richmond East Joe Peschisolido were made aware to the party’s selection committee.
“Absolutely. …They didn’t have any concerns because law firms are law firms and there’s litigation that goes regarding them,” said Peschisolido.
The former Richmond Member of Parliament (2000-2004) said he would not comment on matters before the court.
“I have a law firm and it’s part of doing business,” said Peschisolido.
In both cases, plaintiffs charge that Peschisolido failed to meet his fiduciary duties as a lawyer.
One case involves his former employee, lawyer Sandy Sihota, who worked with Peschisolido on a high-profile case in the community last year involving a pair of Rottweiler dogs the City of Richmond had planned to euthanize following a biting incident.
Sihota, who had articled for Peschisolido in 2012, helped his law firm, Peschisolido Law Corporation, defend the dogs, owned by Navdeep Nijjer, who, according to Sihota’s claim, is a “long term friend” and past client of Peschisolido.
Sihota claims the law firm did not pay for her articling or for her work on the Nijjer’s case.
“On or around March 2014, the claimant started preparing for a trial. …The outstanding amount now accumulated over $20,000 and this had been unpaid.”
Sihota said, according to the civil claim, at one point she expressed to Peschisolido her “mistrust” in Nijjer’s intentions to pay her for her work.
Sihota claims the law firm has made no efforts to recover the payments from Nijjer.
After seven months of unpaid work, Sihota left the firm in June, 2014.
Sihota’s lawyers, from Nordel Law Group, claim Peschisolido “did not act in her best interests.”
Sihota is asking for payment and damages totaling $25,176. The case is set to be heard next summer.
In another case, lawyers for Vancouver residents Wei Chen and Junping Zhang claim Peschisolido was not acting as their fiduciary after he was hired to perform a power of attorney for them.
In 2011, the pair had invested $1 million in a proposed farm operation in Abbotsford with Paul Oei Group, which was also being represented by Peschisolido’s law firm.
Chen and Zhang now claim the money wasn’t invested properly and Peschisolido should have known this and told them.
Peschisolido’s law firm claims, in its response, that he nor the firm had “no knowledge of any such breach of trust.”
Peschisolido was chosen over ousted nominee Wendy Yuan, who misrepresented her resume by stating she obtained a university degree when she was technically one credit shy, due to a filing error.
The Liberals claim its vetting process was more stringent this election as opposed to 2011, when Yuan was a candidate in Vancouver.
