What is the legal test for submitting a joint penalty at a discipline hearing?

The cases in which a joint penalty is submitted are different from cases in which the penalty is not jointly submitted. Joint penalty cases are the result of penalty negotiation. As a result, the penalty is often somewhat less than it would have been in a contested hearing. So long as the penalty is reasonable and not so low or high as to shock the conscience of the public or bring the discipline system into disrepute, the panel presented with a joint penalty is obliged to accept it: Law Society of Upper Canada v. Cooper, 2009 ONLSAP 7. The reasons at paras. 24 and 25 of Deslauriers make it clear that the primary focus in joint penalty cases is examination of the range of penalties assessed in other cases, to see whether or not the joint penalty submitted is reasonable.