Recently I have had two different prospective clients attend at my office asking whether I could guarantee the success of their case.

In the first case, the client asked whether I could guarantee a victory before the Immigration and Refugee Board.  When I advised the client that even if I were of the view that the case was very strong, there is simply no way to guarantee victory.  This is particularly true where the deciding factor may well be a function of which Board member the claimant draws.  As recently reported in the media, one member of the Board has not made a positive in more than a year.  When I delivered this news, the claimant’s response was that he had been told by another practitioner that success could be guaranteed.  My response was simply that anyone guaranteeing success in a refugee claim is being dishonest with the claimant and likely inflating the chances of success in order to gain the claimant’s business.

In the second case, I met with a prospective client who was seeking a lawyer to represent him in a Judicial Review of his negative refugee claim.  After asking me to render an opinion about his chances of success on a Judicial Review he advised me that another lawyer had advised him that he could guarantee 100% success at Court..

The important point here is that if a lawyer or consultant ever advises you that your chances of success either at the Immigration and Refugee Board or at the Federal Court can be “guaranteed” it is a blatant falsehood.  If you have a strong case, there is nothing wrong with advising you about that, but it is misleading to advise that success can be guaranteed.  There are simply no guarantees and anyone, lawyer or consultant, that tells you otherwise is misleading you.