Disease Database Drug Database Alt. For possibly the first time in Canada, a coroner has removed a legal agent from an inquest. Dr. Murray Katz was dismissed yesterday as the legal representative for the family at the inquest of Lana Dale Lewis.
Agents can represent parties in legal proceedings and inquests despite having no legal training.
The rare move was sparked, for the most part, by a private letter Dr. Katz wrote last year. The letter exhorted a member of the coroner's office to call an inquest into the woman's death. The extraordinary ruling by coroner Barry McLellan came following a heated daylong pre-trail hearing. The decision means the Lewis family is without legal counsel. The inquest, which was scheduled to start next Monday, will now likely be delayed until the fall.