Our Take On Things
Hiring to protect the Employer & the Employee
Have you heard the ads on the AM radio stations lately? You know the ones that say “If you have been fired, don’t sign anything without calling XYZ law firm: we don’t get paid if you don’t get paid.” If you have not, you can bet your staff has, and this is part of...
Small Claims Court is Overloaded
22 years ago when I was an Articling Student, the Small Claims Court limit was $3000.00 except in Toronto where it was $ 6000.00. I forget exactly when (I'm old) but it was bumped up to $ 10 000.00 across the province and of course, a few years ago, up to $ 25 000.00....
Lawyer/Client Confidentiality – Protecting it in the age of Google
Have you seen the Microsoft Gift Shop Mugs yet? They say "Keep Calm while We Steal your Data". As a lawyer the thought of someone stealing my data is a bigger problem that the mug suggests. As a lawyer, everything my client and I discuss is confidential (yes, there...
The R Word
Rob is the R word, of course. If you live in the Greater Toronto area there is no escaping that word these days. In the rest of the world Rob is making his presence known, but there are other news stories that have the headlines. I've watched this drama unfold with...
Experience is Priceless
I’ve been a lawyer for 20 years now. When I was a new lawyer I thought lawyers who were in practice as long as I have been were ancient. I was right. I recently enjoyed an out of Court examination with a relatively young lawyer. That lawyer didn’t know the rules that...
What we can teach our High School Students
Tomorrow is take your Grade 9 to work day. Our firm is participating and looking forward to exposing a student to the reality of what being a lawyer is: it's not all Courtrooms & cross examinations, they will learn there is a fair amount of "boring desk work"...
Hurry up and Wait
It's one of those weeks again for me, a hurry up and wait week. I have a matter on a Court list in Hamilton. The matter could be called at any time this week, or it could not be called at all, in which case it gets put on a list for another week. Maybe with priority...
Shareholder's Agreement – why don't you have one?
If you own a company with another shareholder who you are not married to, you need a Shareholder's Agreement. Why? That is easy: it lets you control your destiny, rather than someone else. Without a Shareholder's Agreement you could find your shareholder's ex-spouse...
Well that was inefficient
A "hot topic" of conversation in the GTA Litigation community is the delay in the Toronto Court System. That delay means over 7 months to book a procedural motion before a Master and that of course can lead to delays in law suits for years. Yesterday I was in Motions...
Continuing Professional Development – Let's Make this Meaningful
This morning the lawyers in our firm attended a great continuing legal education seminar about Civil Litigation in the Milton Court House. This was fantastic as it provided real information about our area of practice. Unfortunately, meaningful seminars are difficult...
The evolution of Law in Canada
I enjoy reading many Newspapers, each coming at the news from a different view point. Some have a clear agenda, some hide it better than others. This morning's Toronto Star contains an article that reads a little bit like a Law Student's first attempt at a factum...
Summer Fun Day 2013
One of the things I love about owning our firm is that I can make the rules. One of the rules I have always followed is that we must have fun, at least once a year. (I'm kidding about the frequency) To that end, every year we have a Summer Fun Day. We choose an...
The consequences of Twitter
The big topic of conversation this morning in the GTA news was that three Firepersons (you'll understand why I'm being extra gender neutral shortly) were terminated from their employment by the City of Toronto for tweets sent from their private Twitter accounts. These...
Things to think about before you sue
Decisions made in anger are rarely the correct decision, yet we often find ourselves talking to clients who have decided to start a law suit in a fit of anger. While ultimately the law suit may have merit, we always talk the client through the potential pitfalls of...
Well, that was a quick summer ….
Yes, I know technically summer does not end until September 21. However, I'm just back from two weeks vacation in Nova Scotia & New Brunswick, so I'm feeling that my summer is at an end and my focus is shifting to the upcoming Fall. Many of our clients shift their...
When the truth comes back to haunt you (in the pocketbook)
Poor Lance Armstrong. How a decade can change everything. At the height of his fame, he was accused by Britain’s The Sunday Times of taking performance-enhancing drugs. The usual libel lawsuit was commenced by Armstrong and in 2006 the paper paid him about a half...
Why do people think due process is a bad thing?
I listen to talk radio on my morning drive in to work. The format is such that often an easy topic is discussed that will result in heated call-ins, with the predictable extremes of opinion being expressed. That may be the reason why I am straying as of late to the AM...
Business Expectations & Blurred Lines
This past week I spoke to The Canadian Tennis Professionals Association and the Professional Tennis Registry at the Rogers Cup in Toronto about Social Media and the Law. Part of that conversation involved encouraging each club to decide what their specific...
Planning for the Fall and beyond
August - what a great month. The weather is warm, the nights come a bit earlier than in July, so campfires start sooner and of course all the back to school ads rev up. From a business perspective, August is a good month to take a look at the upcoming last quarter of...
So you think you can draft your own documents, please think again
Recently I've read about "unbundling" legal services to allow clients to do certain tasks on their own and like everyone who listens to the radio, I've also heard the ads for companies that provide legal document templates for people and quickly point out they don't...
The Unpaid Interniship Issue & Lawyers
During the past month the issue of unpaid internships has been in the media - several people who agreed to be unpaid interns decided that they changed their minds and complained about the status, resulting in some payments being made to them. As "anti-unpaid intern"...