A real class act

Lawyer Ches Crosbie is planning on seeking some counsel - from his daughters.

About getting a cellphone, maybe a BlackBerry or an iPhone.

"However, I don't want to become a crackberry addict either," says Crosbie, who eschewed carrying a cellphone some time ago and has been known to borrow his daughter's pink cell.

"I had one for awhile and then realized I was paying $55 a month for something I wasn't using, so I got rid of it," he says, adding smart features like a GPS and the ability to take pictures are enticing him back.

"I am going to look into that, take their advice."

Not carrying a BlackBerry these days is a little unlawyerly like. And perhaps so is writing a book for potential clients about pursuing accident cases.

Despite his reticence over one aspect of technology, Crosbie is generally pretty savvy.

He's realized the power of "Google juice" by writing a blog on his revamped website (www.chescrosbie.com).

He's also on YouTube talking about his 39-page book, "Seven Deadly Sins that can Wreck your Injury Claim."

And he's started a newsletter - the second edition of which has a photo from a recent moose hunting trip with his dad, prominent former politician and current Lt.-Gov. John Crosbie, and others.

In the boardroom of his Water Street office, Ches Crosbie flips through the yellow pages, jammed with ads for personal injury lawyers.

"Some will say they are aggressive. Some will say they care for you, but after that, you're starting to run out of actual information," Crosbie says, explaining the motivation for his book.

"I decided to do it in a more information-oriented fashion, which I think is more dignified. ... I am trying to help people find the perfect lawyer for them, at the same time find the perfect client for me."

He figures some of the competition is annoyed by his book.

"It used to be the law was a big dark secret," says Crosbie, pointing out that advertising wasn't even allowed until 1989.

Longtime legal adversaries Dan Boone - who represents hospital insurer HIROC - and Peter Browne - who has represented doctors in cases pursued by Crosbie - haven't read the book.

But they aren't ticked off, either.

"Ches is a very formidable opponent, very knowledgeable. I think he is probably one of the most knowledgeable practitioners in the medical legal field," says Browne.

"I like to deal with him more than anybody. He's very thorough. He gets back to you as soon as he can," says Boone, who is facing Crosbie now on the mammoth class-action lawsuit involving as many as 2,800 patients who had hormone receptor tests during the period 1997 to 2005 at Eastern Health. Some 386 of those test results have been proven inaccurate and the scandal prompted the Cameron inquiry, which concluded hearings last month.

Behind the scenes, Crosbie and Boone are pursuing a settlement.

"I have a lot of respect for Ches. He likes to push the law and push the envelope of the law," Boone says.

Five years ago, Crosbie expanded into class actions - after legislation was proclaimed to allow them in this province. There are a number on his plate, including payday loans, video lottery gambling and alleged chocolate price fixing.

"I hope it doesn't change him," says Boone.

Crosbie came by the law by accident.

"I was never very intrigued by the law," he admits.

As a boy, he dreamed of being a political science professor. A Rhodes Scholar in 1976, he went off to Oxford University in England, but then took time off.

When he went back, the political program was full, but there was an opening in jurisprudence.

Crosbie completed his Canadian law degree at Dalhousie - where his oldest daughter Charlotte is now enrolled in law - and met his wife, Lois Hoegg, now a Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court justice.

A case involving a young girl struck on Kenna's Hill in St. John's inspired Crosbie to become a personal injury lawyer. He won the case and put in a structured settlement for her lifetime income.

"I got a real sense of satisfaction out of that," he recalls.

"I decided this is really what my calling is in the law, and to establish my own firm eventually to specialize in that kind of stuff."

Fifteen years after starting Ches Crosbie Barristers, the biggest thing on Crosbie's plate these days is the breast cancer case.

"The class-action breast cancer case has put a lot of demands on us because we went for certification. ... No one could foresee at that point there was going to be a commission of inquiry or even the developments or even how bad it was at Eastern Health," says Crosbie, whose firm employs four lawyers.

Crosbie insists Eastern Health was negligent in setting up the tests, failing to recognize signals they were going awry years before 2005, and then failing to disclose the full extent of the problem once it broke.

"If there were failures going on out there, they would rather bury the mistakes than expose them and do something about it," he says.

"That's the worst of it."

Crosbie hopes to be ready for the determination of compensation in court in February, but Boone is leery Crosbie will meet that tight timeline. Even with a compensation guide, it will take months to work through all the charts afterwards.

After the breast cancer case wraps up, Crosbie says he'd like to start working towards semi-retirement.

He made it to the family cottage in Pictou County just one weekend this year - his wife is a native Nova Scotian.

"It's been a lot of work, a lot of stress," he says.

"I would like to wind down. That's my goal. To have more time to myself and less pressure, quite honestly."

Maybe golf more than once a year if he had more time.

But yoga seems to suit the lanky Crosbie more.

He takes a class twice a week, practises at home, and even travelled to India as a young man to study.

"I've been doing yoga since I was 23, back when it was kinda weird," he says with a laugh.

Crosbie wouldn't rule out politics, but says there are no immediate plans.

"That's in the blood, isn't it? It's hard to avoid that. But I'm 55 and I have a lot of responsibilities in my law practice, which I love, and so if it hasn't happened yet, I guess it probably won't."

He feels fortunate that he still has both his parents, John and Jane.

And when Crosbie talks of his daughters, he speaks with pride of whatever career they choose.

Catherine is completing a political science degree and Rachel recently graduated high school.

"My daughters, they have two high-achieving parents and they've chosen their own paths, and that's what I would wish for them - success on their own terms," he says.

Frank Tooton, now a financial planner in Halifax, has known Crosbie since they were three. They were the best man at each other's weddings.

"I have admired his disciplined approach to life - that has served him well," Tooton says.

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