ARTICLES
Joint Tenancy Debt
Articles
September 25, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik THE ISSUES You are owed money by someone who owns a home in joint tenancy- how much can you...
What is Contributory Negligence?
Articles
September 18, 2023 By Brian Babcock What happens when an injured person is partly at fault for their own injury? At one time, historically, any...
How Courts Interpret a Contract
Articles
September 15, 2023 By Jonathon Clark Breach of contract cases are common in Ontario courts. Trials are about finding facts from evidence, and the great...
Taking a Fair Approach to Termination
Articles
September 11, 2023 By Brian Babcock All good things must come to an end, including our jobs. Sometimes that happens because a fixed-term contract expires....
Adverse Possession and Municipal Lands
Articles
September 8, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik THE ISSUE Is adverse possession available to extinguish the title of a municipality in favour of someone who claims...
Duties of Good Faith Versus Fiduciary Duties
Articles
September 5, 2023 By Brian Babcock We have previously discussed the meaning of “fiduciary” and the duties that a fiduciary may owe to the beneficiary...
Towards Efficient Justice in Estate Disputes?
Articles
September 1, 2023 By Jonathon Clark Estate disputes triggered by sibling rivalry continue to clog up Ontario courts. THE CASE So much so that the...
What Happens to Your Pets When You Die?
Articles
August 28, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik Many of us consider our pets to be part of the family. Ontario law considers them to be property....
Trial by Stopwatch
Articles
August 25, 2023 By Brian Babcock When considering the valuable lessons that the court system learned during COVID, the focus is usually on the advantages...
Why Keeping Corporate Records Up To Date Is Good Business
Articles
August 21, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik If you control a small to medium-sized closely held private corporation and keep your corporate records up to date...
What Are Reliance Damages?
Articles
August 18, 2023 By Jonathon Clark In a claim arising from a breach of contract, the goal is to put the injured party (the Plaintiff)...
It is Your Contract: Arbitration Clauses and Appeal Rights
Alternative Dispute Resolution
August 14, 2023 By Nick Melchiorre Arbitration agreements are often overlooked in the drafting and negotiation of contracts. Sure, the agreement may contain an arbitration...
Punitive damages: Bigger is not Always Better
Articles
August 11, 2023 By Jonathon Clark We have written before about Punitive Damages. How much are they worth? In Canada, punitive damages are paid to...
Excluding Witnesses
Articles
August 8, 2023 By Brian Babcock Ontario’s Rules of Civil Procedure provide for an order excluding witnesses who have not yet testified at trial. This...
Municipal Bylaws and Injunctions: a Brief Update
Articles
August 4, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik We have written before about the advantages that municipalities have in enforcing bylaws through injunctions. Superior Court judges have...
The Duty to Report a Claim
Articles
August 2, 2023 By Jonathon Clark If you or your business has a potential claim under your insurance policy, you are required to notify your...
Too Much to Ask Revisited
Alternative Dispute Resolution
July 24, 2023 By Brian Babcock THE ISSUE There is a reason why most of our case comment articles feature cases from the Ontario Court...
Do Employers Have a Right to Layoff Employees?
Articles
July 21, 2023 By Brian Babcock Can an Ontario employer lay off a nonunionized employee? In most situations, the answer is “no.” THE ISSUE For...
Estate Trustees and the Explosion of Litigation
Articles
July 4, 2023 By Jonathon Clark In a recent article, we focused on how terminology can confuse even sophisticated people as to the difference between...
Transitioning from Small Claims Court to Superior Court
Articles
June 29, 2023 By Brian Babcock You start a law suit in Small Claims Court for damages under $35,000.00. THE ISSUE Later, you realize that:...
Reasonable Notice and the Changing Substratum
Articles
June 26, 2023 By Brian Babcock The Ontario Court of appeal continues to favour employees when it comes to the interpretation of termination clauses in...
When Do You Know That It Is Appropriate to Commence a Proceeding?
Articles
June 21, 2023 By Brian Babcock Ontario’s Limitations Act, 2002 incorporates the concept of discoverability. Although in most situations, you are presumed to have discovered...
Removal of Trustees
Articles
June 20, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik What happens when a trustee must be removed, whether due to ill health, misconduct, or other good reason? And...
“Irrevocable” May Really Mean Irrevocable
Articles
June 15, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik If you sign an irrevocable direction to pay money to another person, or are the person subject to the...
What is the Duty of Even-handedness?
Articles
June 13, 2023 By Brian Babcock If you are a trustee, such as an estate trustee, you have a wide variety of duties that you...
Evidence in the Internet Age
Articles
June 8, 2023 By Brian Babcock We live in an information age where knowledge is readily accessible. If we want to know something we just...
Is It a Lease or a License?
Articles
June 6, 2023 By Mark Mikulasik A license is a form of contractual agreement such as an agreement which allows the use of property or...
Contracts as to Legal Costs
Articles
June 1, 2023 By Jonathon Clark Ontario, like most of Canada, follows the British tradition of requiring a losing party to reimburse the winning party...
More Corporate Fun And Games
Articles
May 29, 2023 By Nick Melchiorre If you end up in a dispute with your fellow shareholders in a closely held private corporation, it pays...
Capital Punishment For A Breach Of Privilege?
Articles
May 26, 2023 By Brian Babcock Privilege is a serious matter, as we have explained before. ISSUE But what penalty should be imposed when one...
Administrative Appeals May Be Premature
Administrative Law
May 25, 2023 By Nick Melchiorre Timing can be everything. THE ISSUE If you are on the wrong end of an administrative decision and have...
Taking Shareholder Agreements Seriously
Articles
May 19, 2023 By Jonathon Clark If you incorporate your privately held business, your lawyer will probably advise both you and the other shareholders to...
Taking Trial Dates Seriously
Articles
May 19, 2023 By Brian Babcock Getting your pleadings right in a timely fashion is an important, if often neglected, part of managing your lawsuit....
Who Is More Innocent?
Articles
May 5, 2023 By Brian Babcock The moral high ground strikes again. THE ISSUE Though the phrase is seldom used explicitly in judgments, the centrality...
What is the “clean hands doctrine”?
Articles
May 5, 2023 By Nick Melchiorre You may have heard the expression “coming to court with clean hands”. Perhaps you have a vague idea what...
