What are the fiduciary obligations of a solicitor?

Certain categories of relationships are considered to give rise to fiduciary obligations because of their inherent purpose or their presumed factual or legal incidents. These categories are sometimes called per se fiduciary relationships, and the solicitor-client relationship is an example. Other relationships may give rise to what is termed an ad hoc fiduciary duty. This means that apart from the categories of relationships to which fiduciary obligations are innate – the per se fiduciary relationships – such obligations may arise as a matter of fact out of the specific circumstances of a particular relationship. In those cases, the existence of a fiduciary obligation is thus primarily a question of fact to be determined by examining the specific facts and circumstances of the relationship. See Galambos v. Perez, 2009 SCC 48, [2009] 3 S.C.R. 247, at paras. 36 and 48.