Fiction, Reality, Fraud and Privilege
December 3, 2022 By Brian Babcock Have you watched Better Call Saul or Breaking Bad? Do you recall Saul Goodman saying what Walt needed was “not a criminal lawyer but a criminal lawyer”? THE ISSUE What, you may ask, does that have to do with solicitor-client privilege? We have written before about the importance of […]
Discretionary Bonuses and Termination
November 28, 2022 By Brian Babcock THE ISSUE Are discretionary bonuses to terminated employees truly discretionary? THE CASE This was one of the two issues facing the Ontario Court of Appeal in the recent decision Bowen v. JC Clark Ltd., and is the issue that is more likely to affect most of our readers. This […]
What is Civil Fraud?
November 28, 2022 By Brian Babcock Fraud is such an ugly word. When most of us think about fraud, we think about criminal activity and big headlines on our favorite financial websites. Although fraud can certainly be a crime, the same term is used in is lawsuits between individuals or corporations to describe improper activity […]
Heavy Handed Tactics May Be Costly
November 20, 2022 By Brian Babcock If you are an employer and are faced with a wrongful dismissal or constructive dismissal claim from a former employee you may need to defend yourself. You may even be successful or largely successful in your defence. THE ISSUE In Canada, unlike the United States, a successful party is […]
Rent and Relief
November 20, 2022 By Brian Babcock We all need relief from the pressures of the pandemic. The law is still sorting out its role in that desire. THE ISSUE Can a judge order deferral or reduction of rent under a commercial lease due to a pandemic? Unfortunately, the answer is not a simple yes or […]
The Business Judgment Rule and Arbitration
November 15, 2022 By Brian Babcock THE ISSUE Courts do not generally have jurisdiction to decide upon matters of business judgment. This is referred to as non-justiciability. Because an arbitration clause creates “private law” between the parties, a clear and specific clause awarding jurisdiction to an arbitrator over matters of business judgment may be enforceable. […]
Non-Solicitation and Appealing from Arbitrations
November 15, 2022 By Brian Babcock THE ISSUE Unless a submission to arbitration provides otherwise, the Arbitration Act, 1991 only mandates a right to apply for leave to appeal on questions of law. The application of the law to facts is not a question of law. For leave to appeal to be granted, the issue […]
Jurisdiction and Human Rights: An Ontario Perspective
November 3, 2022 By Brian Babcock We wrote a while ago about the Supreme Court of Canada decision that got sensationalist headlines because the court ruled that under Manitoba legislation, arbitrators had exclusive jurisdiction over human rights complaints where there was a collective agreement that contained the usual privative clause protecting arbitrators’ jurisdiction. Prior to […]
A Matter of Interest
November 3, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Not being paid for your goods or services costs you money. Either you are paying interest to borrow money as a result, you are losing the profit you could make off depositing or investing the money, or you are losing the enjoyment that you could gain spending the money. […]
Privacy Is Priceless
November 3, 2022 By Jonathon Clark We recently posted an article dealing with the high significance of personal privacy as it relates to social values of dignity, integrity and autonomy. This article focused on a criminal law case in which the complainant’s privacy rights were weighed against alleged privacy rights of a wrongdoer. In that […]