Our Take On Things

When you hire new employees, how do you make sure they are made aware of policies and procedures within the company? How do you make sure they know what is expected of them as an employee within your company? The Company Handbook is how. Important topics to be covered...

When we are looking to sign a contract, it is easy to become lost in the business details to ensure that the key contract terms reflect business discussions and expectations. Although it is important to ensure that the key contract terms are accurate as you enter into...

Often we are asked by clients to register Construction Liens for them. This generally is not a problem, except for when we find out that the day of last attendance at the construction site was 44 days ago. Why is that a problem? Because of the due diligence searches...

Over the years, I have assisted vehicle owners in getting their vehicles back from parties (lien claimants) who have allegedly repaired, stored or towed their vehicle. These owners have never agreed to the amount(s) charged by the lien claimant, or someone else had...

In the Province of Ontario there is a lot of talk about Access to Justice and concern about how many self-represented litigants there are in the Courts. One of the solutions has been to increase the number of lawyers in the Province. Not surprising to me, this has not...

When spouses decide to prepare their wills together, there may be a concern that once one of the spouses die and the surviving spouse later remarries, that the surviving spouse may not live up to the joint intentions and promises she or he made to the deceased spouse...

I'm fortunate that as part of my career I have the opportunity to Mentor students, beginning at the High School level and carrying on to lawyers about to be Called to the Bar. I've recently encountered some questions during Mentoring interactions that have led me to...

What is the difference between a lawyer and a paralegal? That is one of the most common questions I am asked by clients. One of the most obvious differences between lawyers and paralegals is education; however, this blog will focus on the scope of practice of a...

Lawyers provide a service. We do many things including conducting research, advocating for our clients and providing legal opinions. While these services are essential, they are not always welcomed nor are they always appreciated. Many businesses that are not law...

I previously talked about why I became a Law Clerk and my role with corporate matters in the firm. This is a big part of what I do for our clients and I wanted to expand on that thought, so that's what today's Blog is about. As a Corporation, Federal or Provincial,...

Back in July, the Liberal government issued draft legislation for proposed tax reforms aimed at private incorporated businesses that fell primarily into 4 categories: Income splitting, Capital gains exemption, Capital gains within a corporate group, and Deferral of...

The title of this Blog is often used in terms of data management to mean that if you input garbage your results will not be impressive. As a litigator, this also applies to the information provided to me by my clients. If my client does not give me full disclosure,...

We as humans have a great attribute to persevere. We like to think that everything will work out in the end if we keep fighting for what we believe is right. This idea can get you far in life but it can also cost you a lot especially in the legal field. One of the...

I was recently successful in a Small Claims law suit where our client was sued for alleged damages to a vehicle the plaintiff claimed were caused by our client. It was obvious after reviewing the Plaintiff’s Claim that the plaintiff had no reason to sue our client....

Ontario lawyers all recently received the email from the Law Society telling us we have to create a Statement of Principles that acknowledges our obligation to promote equality, diversity and inclusion generally, and in your behaviour towards colleagues, employees,...

If you thought by the title of today’s post that we were jumping ship and reviewing the American reality television show of the same name, rest assured we are not! Today’s post is a reflection of some of the recent contract negotiation work we have assisted our...

There are so many people out there who have not given serious thought about Estate Planning. They question “what will happen if I die?”, “what will happen if both myself and spouse dies, my child(ren) will get the property , right?”. Before that happens (I mean before...

There are numerous situations where a client walks into a law office with a valid issue but is unable to receive the outcome they desire. In this profession, clients do not always get the results they want however they should never be robbed of their day in court due...

Our firm is a Professional Corporation. The Canadian Government has declared we are therefore tax cheats. I disagree. Many of our clients are also Professional Corporations or Small Business Corporations. They are not tax cheats either. Over the past twenty-four year,...

One thing that we have noticed with our corporate clients is that they are often operating under a name different than that which has been incorporated. For example, incorporating “ABC Company Incorporated” and then operating under “DEF Co”. What’s the problem with...

We recently had a request from client who is a condominium owner to proceed with an eviction because their tenant was not only failing to pay them rent, but they also had listed the condominium for rent on the Airbnb website. The question they asked was: Can a tenant...