Article content

Almost one year after former Calgary mayoral candidate Bill Smith’s law practice closed, a client says she’s still owed $10,000 from the sale of her house — a claim the Law Society of Alberta has said it will investigate.

Last March, the law society declared Smith’s firm had been placed under a custodianship order by the Court of Queen’s Bench due to “health concerns” that prevented him from continuing to practise.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Woman says she's owed $10K in house sale handled by former mayoral candidate Back to video

At the time, Smith had a number of active files and an open trust account placed in the care of another lawyer, according to court documents.

One of those files belonged to Chiara Fritzler, a Calgary mother who sought out Smith to handle the sale of her Glendale home in January 2018. After selling the home, Fritzler said she’s owed more than $10,000 that was held in trust while the deal was finalized.

“All of a sudden in the spring we heard from (a lawyer) saying, ‘I’m the custodian. Your money is gone. We’re doing everything we can,'” recalled Fritzler. “That was the start of it and since then it’s just been ongoing.”