Our Take On Things
The Power of a Power of Attorney
Did you hear the story about the entrepreneur who went skiing with their family over the holidays and unexpectedly hit a tree on their decent and suffered a debilitating brain injury? After a lengthy hospital stay and another month of care at home, this unfortunate...
An Ode to our Business Litigation Paralegal !
Yesterday our Paralegal, Murray Brown, celebrated 5 years with our firm. A "workiversary' of this length is something that needs to be celebrated and certainly, our Paralegal needs to be celebrated. In Ontario, the relationship between Lawyers and Paralegals has been...
The Cost of Doing Business – when not to cheap out.
Recently we have heard of many businesses being hit with Crypto Viruses. This is a computer virus that holds your data ransom until money is paid to hackers and you receive some but hopefully all of your data. Each of the businesses that were hit did not have a...
It's almost September – time to get those receivables in line
September is a busy month for our firm: many businesses who were content to let receivables age over the summer turn the page on the calendar and think "gotta get that fixed before December 31". This leads to a lot of demand letters and claims flying out the door of...
If you're not a lawyer, you cannot represent someone else in Ontario Courts
Sometimes you just can't fix stupid. I'll double down on that statement and say all the time you cannot fix a fraudster. Recently, our firm was contacted by an individual who was convicted of fraud while he was a Chartered Accountant and expelled from membership as a...
Ontario Employers are you ready for the September 8, 2016 deadline for Combatting Sexual Harassment?
On September 8, 2016 Ontario Employers must comply with the changes to the Occupational Health and Safety Act that address Sexual Harassment in the Workplace. The changes are not difficult to comply with, they essentially involve ensuring your current workplace...
For those about to Law
It's that time of year - students are getting ready to start Law School, Law Practice Program (LPP) Candidates are getting ready for their first in person week. It's time to Law. (I know, Law is not a verb, but really, it should be.) If you're about to enter law...
First Impressions matter when choosing your Business Lawyer
First impressions: you never get a chance to make a new first impression. A couple of older teenagers I know recently decided to go to a Toronto restaurant for Summerlicious. The restaurant was Fred's Not Here. When they met the host, they were asked if they were...
To Snap or not to Snap in Business
Do you SnapChat? Does your company? Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? You should. As a business law firm, one of our beliefs is that you must continue to evolve. This doesn't mean you need to use every new social media platform that is created, but you...
Women on Boards – from a Woman's point of view
A few weeks ago the City of Toronto floated an idea (which has become common in many circles) that 50% of all of its Board Members must be women. I am a woman. I am a lawyer. I sit on Boards. I do not like that idea at all. The reason I don't like the idea is that it...
Coaching your Employees to Improve
As a Business Firm, we frequently represent employers in Wrongful Dismissal law suits and we also help them implement policies to avoid those law suits. One of the issues that often comes up is failing to put discipline issues in writing. For some reason, many...
Law Firms – think about hiring an LPP Placement instead of an Articling Student
It's summertime and that means it's time to think about hiring Law Students for 2017. Wait, that's not what summertime means? For law firms, this is the time of year that students apply, interview and are hired for their mandatory work experience after they have...
A few reasons to use a lawyer when you buy a business
You don't have to use a lawyer to buy a business. Lately our firm has seen many creative alternatives to using a lawyer to buy a business. Some of these include using a Realtor or selling on your own. The Realtor situation, which we have seen more than a few times...
Vacations are important !
It's almost July. The kids are or are almost out of school. It doesn't matter that I've been out of school for way too many years to remember, there is still something about July and August that says "vacation". No. We're not shutting down the firm for the summer, but...
Access to Justice in the Business Law Context
A few weeks ago the newspapers were buzzing with the decision of the Honourable Mr. Justice Nordheimer to halt criminal charges against an individual until Legal Aid paid the bill for his lawyer. The basis for this is that the $ 11,000.00 income limit before you are...
Change is coming soon for Businesses that Store Autos
Effective July 1, 2016, if your business is a "storer of a Motor Vehicle for which there is an Ontario Vehicle Permit issued" you must give notice of the fact you're storing the vehicle to the owner within 15 days and not the current 60 days that you obtain the...
Small Claims Court – is it broken ?
Our firm's fantastic Paralegal, Murray Brown, is various Ontario Small Claims Courts each and every week. When we discuss many of his files, I can't help wonder: is this system broken? Small Claims Court is mandatory for claims $ 25,000.00 and under. Most of the...
Even if you don't want to, sometimes you have to
As Business Lawyers our firm often has to tell clients there are certain things they have to do, even if they don't want to. The most frequent conversations of this nature are: 1. You cannot contract out of the Employment Standards Act Yes, that means everyone. Yes,...
Talking before suing
I came across a Blog recently that talked about an American law regarding Poisoned Workplaces and how "not everything your boss asks you to do is poisonous." The article suggested employees should contact their boss before a lawyer when alleging a poisoned work...
Collection Litigation and the Bankrupt Debtor
We do a lot of collection litigation and we're good at it. (Hey, if we were humble, we would not be lawyers.) This past week, however, has driven home the frustration of bankruptcy in the collection process. We are always up front with our clients when they bring us a...
How it Feels to Come Full Circle in my Law Career
Like many law students in Ontario, I completed my Articles of law in private practice. In fact, I completed my Articles with Andriessen & Associates over ten years ago, the time when Gwen Stefani dropped her debut solo album and I spent many car rides home singing...