Our Take On Things
We need more Judges & Courthouses in Ontario
The Ontario Provincial election will be held June 12 and this is a good time to tell the candidates of all parties what's troubling this Province. As a law firm whose practice includes Business Law Litigation from the Small Claims Court to the Court of Appeal...
Registered Mail adds no value to collection demands
I recently read an Article about things businesses can do to collect money. One of the things it suggested was sending a Registered Letter to the person/business who owes you money. I disagree. As a Business Lawyer for 21 years, with a lot of experience in Collection...
What are we teaching our students?
I am a huge fan of educating High School Students about the Canadian Legal System. I'm always happy to participate in Judging the Law 11 and Law 12 Mock Trials that form part of many High School courses. Our firm is a also proud sponsor of a Scholarship for the...
The cost of the new Canadian Anti Spam Legislation on Small Business is crippling
On July 1, 2014 Canada's new Anti-Spam legislation (CASL) comes into effect. I'm doing a lot of speaking to Small Businesses right now, getting them up to speed on what they need to do in order to comply with CASL. The business owners are first shocked, then...
Why a will and list of your assets is important
There was an interesting article a few weeks ago in the Law Times about a lawyer tracking down the owner of a laneway in Mississauga:...
We the North – let's do this Raptors!
I love Basketball. Paul H. Voorn of our firm loves hockey. He also loves the Montreal Canadiens. We employ him anyway. He has suggested the Ontario Human Rights Code protects his right to cheer for the Habs ... we don't feel the need to test that. Paul has frequently...
A Tale of Two Law Suits
Yesterday was an interesting day at our firm as both Paul H. Voorn, one of our trial lawyers and Murray Brown, our Paralegal had matters come to an end that involved Offers to Settle. In Paul's matter, he received the Judgment in a case he argued last week. Paul won...
I know people don't like lawyers, but come on !!!
Society has many stereotypes about lawyers and some are well earned, but overall I don't think we're that bad. As a lawyer for 21+ years, I'm used to people not being happy about some of the advice I have to give, however, never has the outrage been as loud and angry...
The Brampton Court House Shooting – Thanks to All who keep us safe
Our firm has trial lawyers, myself included, who find ourselves in the Brampton Court House with fair regularity. We don't like being in Brampton. The Court Clerk Staff are overworked and matters take far longer there than in other jurisdictions. For eg. the clerk...
So you want to leave an adult child out of your will
As business lawyers, helping business owners with Estate Planning is part of what we do. I'm not going to write a long and detailed (yawn) blog post about all of the "interesting" technical issues that come up in drafting wills. Today, I'm going to write a direct and...
Know your customer so we can help you more efficiently
In sitting down to write this Blog, I tried to think of a business that doesn't have customers. I can't come up with one - if you can, send me an email and let me know. If you don't have customers, well then, read some of the old Blogs because this one is not meant...
Sometimes laws work in unusual ways
Leamington, Ontario, is the tomato capital of Canada. Many of the former and soon to be former workers of the Heinz tomato factory located there may now disagree. But then enters the Canadian Agricultural Products Act, which requires that tomato juice in Canada must...
International Women's Day
Tomorrow is International Women's Day. Sometimes I get frustrated that we have to single out women as a special group - I just want to be equal, not separate. However, today I choose to reflect on the fact that tomorrow is not "Canadian Women's Day" it is...
Public Safety vs. Human Rights
The Alberta Human Rights Tribunal recently ruled in favour of a foreign trained Engineer who claimed he was being discriminated against as he had failed the proficiency exam for Engineers in that province three times. The Alberta Human Rights Commission ordered the...
The Outrage about Severence Pay
The Toronto Community Housing Corp. was in the media last week, for amongst other things, paying severance to 26 employees it dismissed in 2013. The stats show the payment of severance at the TCHC is up from pervious years. No kidding. I would imagine most companies...
Canada is #1 at the Olympics (right now) and in Business
What a great morning to wake up Canadian - we currently are in first place in the Olympic Medal tally. We have a lot to be proud of as a country: this goes well beyond our ability to ski, skate, curl & hurtle down icy tracks on a small sled facing forward. We are a...
Expectations of Internet Privacy
Oh the excitement in the media recently: the Canadian Government spied on the activities of Passengers at (presumably) Pearson Airport who logged onto the free Wi-Fi. Shocked? You shouldn't be. My first thoughts in reading the story were "who has an expectation of...
Mental Health & Business
Today is Bell's "Let's Talk Day" and the entire month of January has brought mental health issues to the forefront of the media - seems like the perfect time to talk about the legal aspects of Mental Health. A mental health problem is a tough problem for an Employer...
There should be ZERO expectation of privacy in prison
I don’t practice criminal law for a reason. The extension of Charter rights to every facet of police and detention procedure in dealing with an accused, and the resulting dismissal or stay of charges for minor breaches, has always infuriated me. When I was in law...
Parties who do not have lawyers
The news this week included the Canadian Bar Association report that called for more funding for Legal Aid given the increase of unrepresented litigants before the Courts. This lead to much discussion about the number of people who are representing themselves before...
Are you out of time, legally speaking?
Did you know that there are time limits that can prevent you from suing a party, if you wait too long? Unfortunately, many businesses learn that lesson the hard way and it is so unavoidable. Most lawsuits in Ontario must be started within two years after the event...