Kamloops mayor ordered in unsealed court decision to pay former lawyer $35,000

A judge ordered the Kamloops mayor repay more than $35,000 in outstanding legal bills to his lawyer at the time.

That’s according to a recently unsealed court decision in which Associate Judge Jennifer Keim found Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson’s arguments “illogical” and “inconsistent” with the evidence.

It ended with Hamer-Jackson being ordered last October to pay his former lawyer, Dave McMillan, more than $35,000.

Central to Hamer-Jackson’s defence was the lack of a clear, written agreement stating the arrangement, but Keim wasn’t convinced McMillan was working for free over several years, both before and after Hamer-Jackson’s election.

“The client has received the full benefit of the lawyer’s work… without paying anything,” Keim said in her October 2025 decision.

A sealing order was put in place last year over concern the hearing could interfere with Hamer-Jackson’s defamation case against Coun. Katie Neustaeter, which McMillan initially filed before it was passed to another lawyer. The now-unsealed decision confirms Hamer-Jackson is indebted to two of his former lawyers, both reinforced by court orders.

McMillan’s work representing Hamer-Jackson spanned decades, but it was his work just before and after the 2022 election at issue.

One of those was during a workplace investigation into Hamer-Jackson’s treatment of city staff. McMillan attempted to negotiate terms with the investigator. In February 2023, the investigation was still ongoing and city council agreed to indemnify Hamer-Jackson for the cost, according to the decision.

“Council approved $12,000 for you. Just for the investigation. LOL,” Hamer-Jackson said days later in a text message to McMillan.

Keim said it “clearly indicates” Hamer-Jackson saw McMillan as his lawyer, not a friend, in that case.

Council’s decision was ultimately repealed because Hamer-Jackson broke an unspecified term of the agreement, but the judge found it didn’t explain why Hamer-Jackson would claim that work was pro bono.

“If (Hamer-Jackson) thought that the legal work from (McMillan) was pro bono, there would not have been an account to submit to the city for reimbursement,” she said.

McMillan’s invoices accounted for five separate legal matters. Hamer-Jackson argued three of them were done for free and the other two were on a contingency basis.

“Many people I know and that know you felt strongly you were doing this pro bono and for the betterment of our community. That’s not what I thought. I believed we would see light at the end of the tunnel,” Hamer-Jackson said in a February 2024 text message.

Hamer-Jackson claimed he believed they were going to get a payout for the contingency cases, similar to a constructive dismissal case McMillan won on his behalf in the 1990s. One of them was the defamation case against Neustaeter, which the court found was always intended to be passed to another lawyer, and the other never ended up in court.

Not only did Keim find there was no basis for that assumption but the case McMillan won 30 years ago wasn’t done on a contingency at all.

The judge said McMillan was merely paid based on his hourly rate after the case was won, not by a percentage of the damages.

“(Hamer-Jackson) has conflated a contingency fee agreement with an extension of time that allowed him to pay the outstanding amount,” she said.

There was no evidence McMillan’s work was ever done pro bono, either, according to Keim.

Instead, text messages revealed Hamer-Jackson acknowledged McMillan required payment several times.

In one instance, he admitted to having money problems and intended to sell his property so he could pay McMillan. He also urged McMillan to get money from the City of Kamloops, and he attempted to appeal to McMillan’s friendship, asking whether their relationship would “factor in” to the bills.

When she completed her decision, Hamer-Jackson told the court he was “shocked” and suggested he might appeal, but he ultimately did not.

It’s not clear whether Hamer-Jackson — who is facing more than $400,000 in both private and tax debt, along with foreclosure on his business property — has paid any of his outstanding legal bills.