Our Take On Things

Has your business been shut down for part of this pandemic, or maybe even all of this pandemic?  Do you have fewer employees in the office?  Did you have to email your employees new procedures and policies for the ever-changing guidelines issued by the...

Today, we share a little cautionary tale of what happens when employers “go rogue” and fire employees without first consulting an employment lawyer. No, not just any old lawyer will do, it should be one that practices employment law. Why, you ask? Because the employer...

At times, correspondence between parties contains the phrase Without Prejudice, but many people do not know what it means or how the phrase is applied. If correspondence contains the phrase Without Prejudice, it is used for confidential discussions, both written and...

When I decided to write this Blog, I went through the mental gymnastics that most wise people do these days.   I’m not Asian, so does this have to be said, does this have to be said by me, does this have to be said by me right now.   Clearly as I’m writing this, the...

Do you ever feel like you could get an “information overload” headache from all of the information that you can find online on a specific topic, and not to mention, the contradicting information you can find.  Now, it seems to be too-fold with respect to virus,...

Okay, we know everything in the news and on social media, as well as in our texts and conversations, is about the pandemic. Hey, we get it, we are just as guilty - just look at some of our previous blog posts. But the pandemic really has changed a lot in our lives....

It has become incredibly frustrating to see the lawyers at our firm moving their matters forward in Superior Court while I sit on dozens of files waiting for something to happen in Small Claims Court. I filed a Motion for Subservice in early January, 2021. ...

These days if you listen to ads on the radio you  may think that if you have been terminated from your job, you’re entitled to  a lot of money from your former employer. You may be, but as we lawyers love to say “it depends”.   As a firm that only...

The Ontario Small Claims Court is finally allowing Settlement Conferences to proceed on all matters where a Defence has been filed, regardless of the filing date. Up until March 16, 2021, the Small Claims Court was only accepting requests for Settlement Conferences on...

I moved my son to virtual learning for this school year.  While I don’t want to get into a debate about why I did that, I was laughing because I thought sick days and snow days would no longer exist. Similarly, they wouldn’t exist for people who work from...

That got your attention, didn’t it? Well, we all know what sells these days. Now that your listening, today’s topic is actually about a specific type of legal trust: the “naked” or (as we’ll call it) a “bare” trust. Don’t look so disappointed, just “bare” with us, it...

I recently finished a two day Bankrutpcy hearing using Caselines and Zoom in the Province of Ontario.   While the issues were simple, the use of an interpreter added some challenges as well as the continual dropping of the Zoom connection to the Court...

I have been writing blogs for the firm now for a while and when I was first asked to start writing, the first thought that came to my mind was “Who is going to read a blog by a Law Clerk?”  The second thought I had was “What the heck am I going to write about?”...

When companies do business with one another, there is usually a fair amount of paperwork involved. This is the case for both small and large businesses – or rather it should be. If there is no paperwork involved in your business transactions, then we need to be having...

It is important as a business to read your contracts when you are provided services from other businesses.  It is also important that you understand the terms of those contracts, your obligations, and the service provider’s obligations under those contracts....

Yesterday was a big day in the Province of Ontario: there are no more Civil Courts that do not permit service by email. Our first reaction? Get rid of our fax line. Ah, such a liberating feeling - walking into 2021 fax free. I am particularly glad to be free of the...

I thought I would expand from my last blog on virtual hearings and touch on the Dress Code, sort of.  By now I’m sure most of you have seen bloopers of virtual meeting fails, and most recently the Lawyer in Texas getting stuck with a cat filter during a...

A Defendant may make an offer to settle at some point during litigation. Should you accept that offer made by a Defendant? The first thing to consider is whether you feel the offer is reasonable.  There is no mathematical formula to determine if an offer is...

I’m a millennial, there I said it. I like avocados and I’ve used the expression “YOLO” in a non-ironic way (it was a long time ago!). Stereotypes aside, millennials have achieved a lot, including changing the face of business with the advent of the modern day...

COVID-19 (yes, that again) has forced many online filings and hearings.  Slowly the Courts are getting up to speed with on-line filings.  Just recently the Small Claims Court has expanded the on-line filing and hearings, meanwhile, the Superior Court had...

I recently attended a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) Webinar about remote court hearings to get a better idea how its going to work when I eventually have to participate in one.  The main theme of the Small Claims Court component of that CPD was that...