What We Learned From Our First Zoom Trial
October 31, 2021 By Martha Petryshyn & Mark Lahn In early 2021, Weilers associate Martha Petryshyn conducted a five-day trial using the video conferencing software Zoom in the Ontario Court of Justice. Conducting an entire trial virtually was a new experience for the team here at Weilers. In this article, we would like to share […]
Waiver of Privilege Can Happen When You Least Expect It
October 16, 2021 By Brian Babcock Solicitor-client privilege is an important feature of our legal system. In order for you to have confidence to discuss your situations honestly with your lawyer, you want the assurance that what you say to them, and what they say to you, will remain confidential. Solicitor-client privilege has been called […]
Trusts, Gifts and Family Law
August 14, 2020 By Brian Babcock It is important to know whether a transfer of property within a family is intended to be a gift or to create a trust. In particular, this can have significant impact on division of property in family law. The recent Court of Appeal case of Kent v. Kent began as […]
Family Law 101: Dos and Do NOTs of Family Litigation for the Uninitiated
August 14, 2020 By Margaret Waddington Do: Start a calendar or journal. Keeping track of who had care of the kids and when or where different events happened as close to the time is occurred as possible means that your memory will be fresher and you will have a record of events to support your […]
What is a trust?
July 29, 2020 By Brian Babcock Every time I tell someone I will be teaching Trusts in January, I get the question back, “What is Trusts?” Since Trusts are an important part of everyday life, and not just for lawyers, I thought I ought to post an answer. The origins of trusts date back to before […]
Contempt and the Enforcement of Orders
July 29, 2020 By Brian Babcock Obtaining a judgment or court order is only the first step toward satisfaction. The order must still be acted upon or enforced. In Ontario, the Rules of Civil Procedure provide several mechanisms for collecting on a money judgment. These are distinct from the mechanism for enforcing an order for something […]
Common-Law Marriage: Part II – The Hidden Hazards of Property Division
July 16, 2020 By Margaret Waddington As discussed in Part I of this article, common-law couples to do not have all the same rights and obligations as legally married couples, and this difference is never larger then when dealing with the division of property upon separation. Many common-law spouses believe that they will split all […]
Common-Law Marriage: Part I – It’s the same as being legally married, right?
July 16, 2020 By Margaret Waddington These days more and more couples are deciding against getting married for the seemingly simpler option of common-law marriage. Although “common-law” has several legal definitions, in the family law context it means that you have lived together for at least 3 years or for 1 year, if you have […]
What is a Voice of the Child Report?
July 16, 2020 By Kimberly Costa Voice of the Child Report (a “Report”), also known as Focused Children’s Lawyer Reports (those prepared through the Office of the Children’s Lawyer), is a relatively new development in family law matters in Canada. There is now a greater recognition of the importance of the voices of children and […]
Changes To Ontario Disability Support Program
September 20, 2017 By Paul Jasiura Co-authored by Adam Castonguay (Law Student, Bora Laskin Faculty of Law) Disabled persons in Ontario are eligible for income support benefits through the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). In order to ensure that only people in need receive the benefits, there is a limit on the assets owned by the recipients and […]