THE ADVOCATE 611
VOL. 80 PART 4 JULY 2022
I worked with Scott at the Board for 20 years, and I can honestly say that
I have never met a more organized and prepared lawyer. He is the antithesis
of a procrastinator. He was, and still is, an early bird, often arriving at the
office well before 7:00 a.m. If Scott was not early for a meeting, he considered
himself late, and he is the only litigator I know who was always so well
prepared for a court hearing that he was able to truly relax the day before.
I have no doubt that Scott will bring his talent for staying organized and on
top of his caseload to his new role as master.
Scott also has a terrific sense of humour. He enjoys a good laugh and is a
naturally funny storyteller. Whether talking about amusing things that have
happened to him in the courtroom as a lawyer (like the time he was called
over the loudspeaker to two different court rooms on two different matters
at the same time) or regaling his colleagues with cute and funny stories
about the antics of his kids and their friends, Scott could always make people
laugh. Scott also had a reputation at the WCB legal department for “Scottisms”.
A Scottism was an idiom that many of us were (at first) not familiar
with, but quickly entered office parlance because of his repeated use of it.
A few I can recall are “dragging the piano”, “no good deed goes unpunished”,
“I smell a win” and “stop tromping around in our cabbage patch” (this latter
phrase referring to the court meddling in an area under the exclusive jurisdiction
of the Board).
During his time as a practising lawyer, Scott also began to hone his skills
as a decision maker, working part-time as a member of the medical review
panel constituted under the Mental Health Act. In that capacity, he held
hearings and determined whether people detained under the Act for mental
health reasons were no longer a threat to themselves or others.
In 2014, Scott accepted the position of district registrar of the B.C.
Supreme Court, and in 2018 he became registrar of the B.C. Supreme Court.
As district registrar and as registrar, he gained a reputation for maintaining
decorum in the courtroom while putting counsel and litigants at ease with
his calm and capable demeanour. He handled a high volume of applications
and held hearings that were sometimes many weeks in length. As deputy
registrar and as registrar, he issued over a hundred written decisions. He
also dealt with an ever-increasing number of self-represented litigants and
is known for being particularly effective at dealing with self-represented
persons and junior lawyers. Scott reports that the most common introductory
statement he heard as registrar was “I’ve never done this before … ”.
Scott has also contributed to the legal profession in a variety of capacities.
He has been a regular speaker on matters involving the work of the registrar
and has assisted in authoring and editing the CLEBC publication Practice