The Law of Sleep
December 18, 2022 By Brian Babcock In Canada, and most of the world, laws influence everything that we do or are not supposed to do. Laws seem to be everywhere. You can Google “ the law of… [insert any word or phrase]” and be confident of getting many hits from serious to silly. THE ISSUE […]
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. […]
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. […]
Know Your Contracts
October 19, 2022 By Brian Babcock Whether you draft your own contracts, are reviewing custom contracts presented by another person, or are trying to use a standard form contract, trying to be your own lawyer is like trying to be your own brain surgeon. Law students spend an entire year on the theory and interpretation […]
How Much Automobile Liability Coverage Do I Need?
October 14, 2022 By Brian Babcock No matter how often we try to explain to clients or others that insurance brokers are the best people to ask, this is probably the question we get most often about insurance. THE ISSUE If you are at fault in an accident, your personal assets and income may be […]
The Duties of a Partner
September 18, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik If you are a partner in a business venture, you not only have risks to outsiders, you have risks arising from your duties to your partners. Many business people enter into partnerships, particularly joint ventures for the holding or development of real estate, with very little if any documentation. […]
Weird Trademark Tales
September 11, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik If you are going to invest thousands of dollars in building up the goodwill associated with the name of your business or product, it simply makes sense to consider registering it as a trademark. This is as true in Thunder Bay and the rest of northwestern Ontario as it […]
Check Your Insurance
September 11, 2022 By Brian Babcock If you are like most of us you think about your property insurance – either commercial or personal – once a year upon renewal, if then. THE ISSUE As with any other type of insurance, you need to review your property insurance anytime you have a significant change – […]
Continuation of a Contract by Conduct
August 24, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Collecting royalty fees from franchisees is the life blood of a successful franchise operation. THE ISSUE What happens when a franchise agreement expires, but the parties continue to operate as if they still had an agreement? THE CASE That was the issue in Coffee Time Donuts Incorporated v. 2197938 […]
Is That a Fact or a Prediction?
August 1, 2022 By Brian Babcock A common way to recover damages for economic loss in the absence of a contract or physical damage to property is to make a claim for negligent misrepresentation. The test for negligent misrepresentation was conveniently recently repeated in a 2019 Superior Court decision called Doumouras v. Chander: there must […]