HALIFAX -- Nova Scotia's top court says a Halifax defence lawyer who was disbarred can be reinstated before paying a $150,000 penalty levied by the professional law society.

In a written decision released Thursday, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal says the terms and conditions for the repayment will have to be worked out between Lyle Howe and the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society if he applies for reinstatement.

Howe was disbarred in October, 2017 after a disciplinary panel of the society found him guilty of professional misconduct and professional incompetence.

In his appeal heard by the court in April, Howe argued the panel's decision violated his equality rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because he was singled out for scrutiny and faced harsher penalties than other lawyers.

He also submitted that the only reason for the difference in treatment was that he is black, an argument dismissed in the court's unanimous decision. It did not find his Charter rights had been breached or that the society's investigation was motivated by racial prejudice.

Writing on behalf of the five-member appeal panel, Justice J.A. Farrar said while there was significant scrutiny of Howe, it wasn't without reason.

He said the society was responding to numerous complaints and concerns about Howe's practice and that Howe had agreed that he needed to change his behaviour but didn't.

"Mr. Howe conveniently avoids the significant volume of evidence that was before the panel and that the panel considered in making its decision," the court wrote. "As explained earlier, it made findings of fact which provide no support Mr. Howe's assertion that race was a factor in the Society's investigation."

As for Howe's statement that the panel erred in principle in imposing a demonstrably unfit sentence, Farrar wrote it is "just that -- a statement .... He does not identify any error in principle."

He said the disciplinary panel properly considered systemic and actual racism as mitigating factors and examined whether there was a connection with the findings of misconduct, before concluding there was not.

"I see no error in principle in the panel's identification of the legal principles and their application to the facts of this case. Its decision is unassailable," the judge wrote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2019.