Weilers LLP

The Working for Workers Act

April 24, 2022 By Brian Babcock Most of the Working for Workers Act, 2021 is now law in Ontario. How might it affect your business or organization, or your life as a worker? This Act amends several existing laws that affect the workplace, most particularly the Employment Standards Act. In a nutshell, the significant changes […]

Taking Sexual Misconduct Seriously

April 15, 2022 By Brian Babcock When is sexual misconduct by one employee against a fellow worker grounds for dismissal for cause? This requires an analysis of the seriousness of the misconduct. In most dismissal cases, a single, brief isolated incident of misconduct is not considered serious enough to warrant dismissal – it fails to […]

What’s the Difference: The Oppression Remedy and Derivative Actions

April 15, 2022 By Brian Babcock We have written several recent articles about oppression remedies – a tool created by the Ontario Business Corporations Act which allows stakeholders in a corporation to claim relief for misconduct by the directing minds of the corporation which unfairly disregards their reasonable expectations, causing them harm personally. Oppression remedy actions […]

Privilege, Settlement, and Common Sense

April 9, 2022 By Brian Babcock Settling your disputes before going through the time, trouble, expense, and delay of a trial or other final hearing is a good thing. This is recognized both by court rules and ethical rules applying to lawyers. Both sets of rules encourage settlements. Privilege, which is the technical legal term […]

Marriage, Separation, and Your Estate Plan

April 9, 2022 By Brian Babcock Are you married? About to be married? About to become separated or divorced? Already separated but not divorced? If you answer any of these questions “yes”, you need to be aware of changes to Ontario’s Succession Law Reform Act that came into effect on January 1st 2022. Prior to […]

What is Promissory Estoppel?

April 2, 2022 By Brian Babcock Promissory estoppel is the legal system’s version of “no backsies”. More formally, it is an equitable defence designed to protect you if another person attempts to back out of a promise after you have changed your legal position in reliance upon the promise. In Trial Lawyers Association of British […]

When Will Air Rights Be Subject to an Implied Easement?

April 2, 2022 By Mark Mikulasik Implied easements are granted very rarely, and air rights are seldom the issue, so a case addressing the combination is bound to attract attention. Add a popular shopping mall battling the City of Toronto, and you have a case we need to write about, and you may want to […]

What a Nuisance!

March 26, 2022 By Brian Babcock You probably had not heard of the criminal offence of  “mischief” prior to the Freedom Convoy blockade in Ottawa. You now may have learned that in law the word “mischief” has a different meaning that in everyday conversation. The same is true of the term “nuisance”, although as with […]

Nothing but the Facts: A Story About Interpreting Contracts

March 26, 2022 By Brian Babcock It is dangerous to fall in love with an attractive legal quotation and expect that it will decide your case in your favour. Most lawsuits are ninety per cent about the facts and only ten per cent about the law. That is a truism that I was taught many […]

What is a Fiduciary?

March 26, 2022 By Brian Babcock “What is a fiduciary?” is even harder to answer than “What is a Trust?”. In the case of both related concepts, there is no single definition that is generally accepted. Instead, we are given descriptions, examples, or tests to determine whether one exists. Unlike trusts, which have been recognized […]