MONTREAL — In what's believed to be a Canadian first, a jail guard convicted of smuggling contraband will get a new trial after an appeals court ruled his lawyer was incompetent.

The Quebec Court of Appeal said Pierre Arold Agnant's lawyer didn't understand basic rules of law.

A jury convicted Agnant in 2010 for bringing drugs, booze and cellphones into Montreal's notorious Bordeaux jail. He was sentenced to nine years in prison.

But in a recent decision, the appeals court said the jail guard's lawyer, Max Stanley Bazin, "simply did not read the file, even in a cursory way."

"Rarely has the incompetence of counsel been greater than in this case...he irreparably sabotaged the appellant's defence by significant and widespread ignorance of the basic rules of criminal law."

The lawyer's "incompetence" was so obvious a juror sent a note to the judge to question the proceedings, the appeals court said.

"The incident is not trivial and is probably a first in Quebec, if not Canada."

Bazin was barred from practising for two years in 2011. He's since quit the profession.

In 2010, the Quebec Bar Association criticized him for failing to report to court to represent some of his clients.

In one case a judge issued an arrest warrant for one of the defendants.

Furthermore, Bazin didn't take required refresher courses, and the association demanded his immediate removal so he couldn't "compromise the protection of the public."

— With files from Michael Nguyen