A Toronto lawyer who’s listed as the counsel on record in hundreds of Roma refugee cases is facing disciplinary proceedings at the Law Society of Upper Canada for failing to “adequately prepare” a defence of his clients’ asylum claims.

Viktor Hohots, who was called to the Ontario bar in 2003, was at the centre of 18 complaints at a pre-hearing conference Monday before a law society tribunal.

It’s alleged that Hohots engaged in professional misconduct by “failing to assume complete professional responsibility for his practice, and by failing to directly and effectively supervise the non-lawyer staff . . . to whom he delegated the preparation of refugee claims.”

Hohots, who did not respond to the Star’s interview requests, did not attend the conference. His lawyer, Michael Lacy, also declined to comment Monday, saying he has yet to be provided with full disclosure of the accusations, which have not been proven at the tribunal.

According to the Immigration and Refugee Board, Hohots had a high volume of Hungarian refugee cases. He was listed as counsel on record in 178 Hungarian asylum decisions issued by the refugee board in 2010, 163 in 2011 and 153 in 2012.

The Law Society would not reveal if the complainants were all Hungarian Roma, but did say the professional misconduct allegedly occurred during between approximately August 2009 and February 2012.

In each case, the allegations made against Hohots were similar.

In a notice of application, complainant A.K. claimed that, between February and April 2010, Hohots failed to adequately prepare her Personal Information Form (PIF), which was supposed to include details and events that explained why the refugee claimant needed Canada’s protection.

She also complained that Hohots drafted and commissioned a solemn declaration without having it translated into Hungarian for her — which she swore to, not knowing part of the declaration was untrue. She further accused the lawyer in the application of failing “to treat the tribunal with candour,” when he submitted that declaration to the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Although the Law Society did not identify the complainants, citing privacy concerns, the Star has confirmed that a family now hiding in sanctuary in Toronto is among the 18 individuals and families who filed their official complaints to the regulator. Other complainants are believed to have all been deported from Canada.

Jozsef Pusuma, a researcher for Viktoria Mohacsi, a prominent Roma and member of the European Parliament, arrived in Toronto with his wife, Timea Daroczi, and daughter, Viktoria, from Hungary in 2009. Their case was heard in 2010 and later denied by the Immigration and Refugee Board.

Among the allegations in Pusuma’s complaint against Hohots were:

Hohots only met the family for three minutes and mostly with Joszef Sarkozi, a former immigration consultant/translator, who worked at the lawyer’s office; The family’s personal information forms (PIFs) for asylum were drafted only by Sarkozi and were not read back to them; Sarkozi failed to provide a video and letters to the IRB on time that the family believed were crucial to their claim; The family was advised by Sarkozi how to answer questions according to a “method” to have their claims accepted.

In his reply to the society’s investigators, Hohots denied the allegations and said he met with the Pusumas at least three times and the translated narratives were read back to Jozsef Pusuma before the PIFs were signed and served to the refugee board.

Hohots accused the client of being responsible for delays, by requesting postponement of the refugee hearings through “numerous and generic medical notes.” He also denied that Sarkozi ever advised the family to follow any “method” to have the claim accepted.

The Pusuma family said they were relieved the law society’s disciplinary process has finally begun, more than two years after their complaint was filed.

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“We hope that justice will finally be done. . . I am happy because my prayers have won a hearing at the law society,” Daroczi told the Star.