Tomorrow is Remembrance Day in Canada. A time to remember those who sacrificed their lives to give us the freedom we enjoy today.
We just completed a Federal Election. There was a change in government. There was no military coup. We all had an opportunity to vote. This is democracy. This is what people died for.
Our firm is proud to be part of the legal system in our Country. A system that metes out justice based on reasoned arguments and principals of law. This is democracy. This is what people died for.
Our country allows all people to choose to not believe in God or to believe in a God of their choice. This is freedom. This is what people died for.
Our country allows people to express their opinions freely. This is freedom. This is what people died for.
If we forget our history we are destined to repeat it. That is a frightening prospect.
So tomorrow, let’s remember those who died for our freedom and be thankful we live in the Canada that is free.
The Ministry of Labour in Ontario is stepping up its inspection and enforcement of a couple of relatively new requirements of the Employment Standards Act and Occupational Health and Safety Act. The requirements are commonly referred to as “the poster” requirements.
All businesses must post the Ministry of Labour Poster that informs employees about their rights under the Employment Standard’s Act and provide employees with their own copy. This can be by either hard copy or via email. The poster can be found here: http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pdf/poster.pdf
All businesses must also post the Occupational Health & Safety Act Poster found here: http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/hs/pdf/poster_prevention.pdf
In addition to the poster, businesses must post a copy of the Occupational Health & Safety Act.
Finally, companies must post a copy of their Health & Safety Policy and are required to review this annually. Our firm provides these policies as part of the Company Handbooks we create for clients: this ensures all of their compliance documents are in one place.
While not required to be posted, there are many other required policies for businesses in Ontario. If you don’t have them, feel free to reach out to discuss our flat fee to create these documents for you.
Maybe it was all the hype about “Back to the Future” last week, but lately, a lot of people have been asking us for “originals” of documents, when they are given PDF or Fax Copies.
News Flash: it is 2015, not 1985 and for most documents, a PDF or Fax version is as good an original. There are notable exceptions and it is always worth asking your lawyer if you are not sure, however, the Ontario Electronic Commerce Act has been in place since 2000 and allows not only fax and PDF to be “originals” but also allows electronic signatures for many documents.
If you choose to use an electronic signature for your contracts, the Act requires that you provide a copy of the contract to the signing party in a form that is available for future review. This means emailing a copy is fine, but directing a party to a website, is not. You may not use digital locks on the contract and it must be protected against future alteration in its’ final version.
While the Act has been around for a fairly long time, it appears many lawyers are unaware of it or simply unwilling to step away from 1985 and into the future/present.
If your lawyer is stuck in the past with Marty McFly and Doc Brown, feel free to reach out to our firm – we provide current legal advice, without the DeLorean.
October is Small Business Month in Canada: this is a great time to celebrate the backbone of the Canadian Economy (or a group of tax cheats, depending on how you look at it … I’m just not ready to see Small Businesses that way).
Just because a business is “small” does not mean that its’ legal obligations are small. It does, however, generally mean that there is not a big budget in order to deal with legal matters. Our firm enjoys working with Small Businesses and we are able to deliver quality Business Law Advice that fits within their budget.
Here are a few of the advantages we provide to Small Businesses:
1. 95% of the work our firm provides to businesses, is provided on a flat fee basis. This allows the business to budget for the work that will be provided;
2. We accept Visa & MasterCard (can you believe many firms still do not?): this allows Small Businesses to “earn points” from their legal fees, but more importantly, if something needs to be done immediately and cash is not available, there is a way to quickly finance the work.
3. We alert our clients to important changes in the law that impact the way they work. This ranges from alerting clients that their sector is being targeted for Ministry of Labour inspections, to letting them know when specific legislation comes into force to impact them.
So, here’s to Small Businesses in Canada: let’s keep driving this economy forward !
I was recently interviewed by a prominent legal community newspaper, The Law Times, with respect to my thoughts on a July 2015 Court Decision that permitted Judgment Creditors to use a Court Supervised Sale of property to enforce a Judgment, rather than having to go through the Sheriff’s Sale procedures set out in the Rules of Civil Procedure.
If you’re not a lawyer, that paragraph you just read is boring and maybe meaningless, so let me put it in plain English.
The Rules of Civil Procedure set out how civil law suits in Ontario take place. These Rules also set out how Judgments can be enforced.
If you have a Judgment against a debtor that owns property, the Rules say you can have the Sheriff sell the property. That sounds pretty straight forward, right? Wrong. Before the Sheriff will sell the property, they need a payout statement from anyone (usually a bank) that has a mortgage on the property. Due to Canadian Privacy Laws, you need to try to get the debtor to agree to give that information to you before you can get a Court Order requiring the information to be provided.
This usually means the following process has to be followed to get the information:
1. Pay a process server to try to serve the debtor with a document (Notice of Examination in Aid of Execution) that tells them when and where they have to attend to give information about their assets, including mortgage balances.
2. If the debtor is served (they usually evade service) then you send a lawyer to wait 15 minutes for the debtor not to show up. You have to pay the office you are waiting at and of course, lawyers don’t work for free.
3. The Judgment creditor now must obtain a Court Order that the debtor will attend the Examination in Aid of Execution. A good lawyer will ensure that Order allows you to serve the notice by mail, but many lawyers will skip that step. Lawyer, Court & Process Server fees are again incurred.
4. Repeat step 2, incurring the costs all over again.
5. The lawyer will draft a motion for Contempt of Court. This type of motion must be served personally on the Judgment Debtor. Expect to incur a lot of process server fees.
6. If the Judgment Debtor finally attends, they will refuse to give the mortgage payout information.
7. The lawyer must now bring another motion to have the mortgage company provide the information based on the Judgment Debtor’s refusal.
This is not cheap. Once you get the information, you have to pay at least $ 7,000.00 to the Sheriff for the sale.
If your Judgment is for an amount less than $ 100,000.00 this likely is not worth it. Even if your Judgment is for that amount, you must spend a lot of money to find out how much is owed on the property. If the mortgage debt is large, then you’re not going to proceed with the sale and you spent a lot of money to find out that you should not have spent a lot of money.
The Judge in the case I commented on allowed a Court Supervised sale and streamlined the process to obtain the mortgage payout information. It allowed people with Judgments under $ 25,000.00 to sell property (or motivate the debtor to re-finance to pay their Judgments) without incurring an ridiculous amount of legal and Court fees.
Unfortunately, that case is likely to be overturned if appealed.
Ontario: what a great place to be a Judgment Debtor.
Remember when you were a kid and your parent, likely half listening to you, agreed to give you a chocolate bar you really shouldn’t have been getting that close to dinner? When your parent then actually listened to your request and changed their mind, the first thing you said was: “but you promised”.
Unfortunately, many businesses find themselves saying the same thing to customers who agreed to pay for goods or services and then decided not to.
One of the first questions we ask when a business wants to collect money is: “did you get it in writing?” If the answer is no, it does not mean that the money cannot be collected. An agreement can be enforced, even if it is not in writing.
However, the lack of a written agreement will usually eliminate the right to collect interest beyond the 1% of the Courts of Justice Act rate and your legal fees will not be reimbursed at 100%.
When pressed as to why they didn’t get a signed agreement, many businesses say “that’s not how it’s done in our industry.” That may have been the case many years ago, however, most businesses today get signed agreements and those who refuse to sign an agreement probably shouldn’t be trusted.
The days of the handshake deal are dead. There is no best business practice that says seal a deal with a handshake and a smile: that is just not done. Why risk it? Why risk your cash flow on someone who says “trust me”. If there is no intention to default, there should be no problem signing an agreement.
You don’t want to be left in the position of having to say: “but you promised”.
I have the privilege of being involved as a Mentor to two different levels of students.
I am a Mentor in the Ryerson Law Practice Program to four students who have law degrees and are now in the program that is an alternative to Articling. It is great to work with students from diverse backgrounds, with interests to practice a variety of types of law.
I am also a Mentor to The Abbey Park Legal Eagles High School Mock Trial team. This is such a fun opportunity, to work with students who are trying to figure out what they want to do post-secondary school and how, if at all, law fits into that.
As anyone who Mentors will tell you, you don’t just give as a Mentor, the students teach you in many ways and it is fantastic to “give back”.
One of my Mentors passed away on the weekend, the Honourable Mr. Justice Lissaman judged my Law School Mock Trial competition. He gave his entire Saturday to hear the team from UofT lose to our team from Osgoode. At the end of the trial he gave us each individual advice, when he came to me it was: “Ms. Andriessen, you do advocacy.” I took his advice to heart and have enjoyed every moment of my career as an advocate.
I’ve also enjoyed every moment of Mentoring. You don’t have to be a lawyer to Mentor: I encourage you to look for opportunities in your field, you will not regret it.
This Blog is directed to individuals carrying on business as sole proprietorships, though I won’t tell if you’re reading this and you don’t fall into that category.
I have heard many explanations over the years for not incorporating:
1. I am not sure the business will be a success;
2. I don’t have the money;
3. I don’t need to, you’re just trying to make money off me because you’re an evil lawyer. (the evil may be my addition, but I’m sure it was implied).
I’ve heard more than the above, but most of the explanations fall into one of those three categories.
So, let’s talk about these explanations. A non-successful business likely will incur debts. If you are not incorporated, those debts will be personal liabilities. So, if you stop paying that copier lease, rest assured you will be sued on the balance owing on the lease and that job you got after you closed your business doors? Well that salary is now being garnished at the rate of 20% of your net wages until that Judgment is paid.
Sound like a good idea? Of course not.
Moving onto money. Starting a business takes money. Many firms, including ours, will incorporate you on a flat fee basis. Many of those firms will also negotiate reasonable payment terms with you so that you’re able to pay for the incorporation over a period of time.
Finally, the evil lawyer argument. There are evil lawyers out there I’m sure, however, our firm is not made up of them. We’re here to protect you and everything you have earned from your hard work.
A corporation protects your personal assets from seizure by creditors.
A corporation protects your personal assets from a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by a former employee.
A corporation allows you to split your income between shareholders, which puts more money in your pocket.
There are many other reasons to incorporate, but the above are the key ones.
If you’d like to learn more about how we can help your business, please feel free to call or email one of our lawyers.
When I was a much younger lawyer (been doing this 23 years now) I happily embraced technology. I had a computer monitor with multi-colour, not just one colour display. I used a laser printer, instead of dot matrix and I hopped on the CompuServe bandwagon faster than you could say AOL.
Our firm has always embraced computerized research, billing and file management. We recently even added the ability for lawyers and paralegals to dictate on their phones and send the encrypted dictation to the firm.
I was feeling pretty smug about how tech savvy we were. Gloating silently when old school lawyers talked about using typewriters and libraries and then it happened. I almost became a tech dinosaur.
Thankfully our newest associate, Eduji Ofori (who has been doing this 8 years) joined our firm and opened our eyes to more efficient ways of using technology, particularly on the corporate documentation side of the practice. We are now firmly embracing more technology and that is a great thing for everyone.
However, this did make me think: it’s easy to get used to your comfort zone in technology and it’s important not to shut yourself out of possibilities of learning new ways to accomplish tasks. That applies to all businesses, not just law.
This week I once again begin mentoring Ryerson LPP Candidates and I am very much looking forward to not only mentoring them, but learning from them so I never become that close to being a tech dinosaur again. Because let’s face it: there were no amazing, business lawyer dinosaurs with a shoe collection to rival Imelda Marco and I shouldn’t be the first one !
Inga B. Andriessen JD (Juris Doctorate, not Justa Dinosaur)
Ah, finally, today my commute was the reasonable amount of time it always takes in summer.
I was able to see my family for breakfast & expect I can see them for dinner as well. This week, if my leg was not injured, I would finally be able to join my Stand Up Paddleboard ground on Lake Ontario. It’s the second to last week of August – that is not right.
Yes, my summer has finally begun because the HoV lanes are gone.
Enough about me, let’s talk about our clients.
Our manufacturing clients no longer need to pay overtime for drivers to get into Toronto.
Our restaurant clients in Toronto are hoping that people will return to the City and they can make up some of the revenue they are down. They already had to let go many student servers due to lack of work. I’m sure those students felt fulfilled by their ability to volunteer at the PanAm games instead of earn money to go back to school.
All of our clients will benefit from shorter commutes and costs that are no longer needing to be incurred by the imposition of the HoV lanes.
The assessment of the PanAm games that allegedly will take place now must include an assessment of overall economic impact on the entire GTA region. It is unfair to destroy the economy and quality of life for many in order to “benefit a few.
Let summer begin !
Inga B. Andriessen JD
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