Our Take On Things

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....

Our firm is made up of fantastic people who regularly "give back" both in the legal community and beyond it. Our Law Clerk, Christine, is a Beaver Leader and I am on the Board of Directors of the Halton County Law Association and Chair of OJEN-Halton, to name a couple...

Lately I've noticed our firm is being "thanked" a lot by clients and people making inquiries about our firm, for "getting back to us so promptly." Our turnaround is at the very latest, five hours for a reply, even if that reply is only to say "we're in Court, we'll...

Maybe it's just me, but 2015 had some themes running through it, in terms of the legal industry. I'm hoping that some new ideas will spring up in 2016, because by December, this really felt like beating the same drum over and over and over again. Here are my "top...

Many readers of our Blog have met our amazing Paralegal, Murray Brown. This past year, Murray has once again delivered numerous victories to our clients and this last week of 2015 is a good time to look back on them. As we're a law firm, we are bound by lawyer/client...