Our Take On Things

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

This week is a busy week for me. I'm the Chair of the Ontario Justice Education Network (OJEN) - Halton Committee and it is Mock Trial Championship time. On Wednesday, the top 8 Halton High School teams will compete for the championship. On Friday, teams from Halton,...

This week has been set aside by the greeting card companies to celebrate Admin Professionals day. We will be joining in, however, in our firm we appreciate our Admin Professionals every day. Since starting this firm over 23 years ago, I have always been of the belief...

If you're reading this Blog and not sure what "The Panama Papers" are, please do a quick Google Search and then return to this Blog. I'll wait. O.K. Everyone on the same page then? Good. I'm bothered by The Panama Papers, for reasons other than the outrage people have...

Our law firm is frequently in the Milton, Ontario Court House. Milton needs a new Court House. There is one elevator in the Court House that goes to the third floor. It is out of service more often than it works. This prevents people with mobility issues from easily...

Last week, the Ontario Human Rights Commission (ONHRC) conducted a trial by twitter. A restaurant had allegedly posted, on twitter, an ad for a female restaurant worker. To be clear: one is not allowed to do that in Ontario and job ads must be gender neutral. The...

Many of our clients are entering "Deal Mode" these days which often leads to questions about the value and enforceability of documents prepared in anticipation of doing a deal. These questions are often about the binding nature of a letter of intent or, in more...

So you’ve gone to all the time and expense of developing a brand, establishing goodwill in the marketplace and even registering your trademark – now what? Here are a few key things to think about so you don't lose the right to your Registered TM: 1. A mark only has...

Last week I attended a fantastic International Women's Day (IWD) dinner in Halton, Ontario. There were over 900 attendees, most were women, but some men attended the event as well. I was at a table of all women. Four of us, including myself, own law firms. Four were...

In Ontario, if you lose in a civil lawsuit, you generally have to pay the legal fees of the winner. The rationale behind this is, in part, it prevents lawsuits that are not likely to succeed from being brought. From a business perspective, focusing on Wrongful...

The news recently has been blanketed with accounts of the Immigration and CRA frauds making the rounds in the GTA. In these frauds, people phone individuals and advise that they will deported or they are going to jail in the hour because they have not paid taxes. Many...

Many of our clients retain our lawyers to draft contracts that they use on a daily basis in their business. We draft contracts for many industries ranging from commercial landlords to leasing companies to software developers and many others. One of the key pieces of...

This post is directed to lawyers (though non-lawyers are welcome to read as well) in particular, newly Called lawyers. Please. Litigators. Read the Rules of Civil Procedure before moving forward on a matter. Recently our firm has encountered two instances where...

On July 1, 2016, change to the Repair & Storage Liens Act (RSLA) come into effect in Ontario. The industries that will be most heavily effected are Auto Repair & Storage facilities, well at least, that is the industry the government is targeting with this legislation....