Our Take On Things
A little over a month to go until the HST
It’s not as if this topic is something we’re looking forward to, but it will be a reality for Ontario at the end of next month – the HST is coming and it will make a change to the bottom line on your legal fees. Currently only GST is charged on legal fees. Certain...
Copyright Reform
Experts predict that sweeping changes to our current copyright system will be tabled in Parliament sometime next month. With mounting pressure from the United States, it is likely that the current effort will bring about actual legislation this time – a fate...
Professional Corporations
It’s the last day to file your personal income taxes, so tax status and the treatment of income is on my mind. That and the fact that we’ve had a few questions from professional clients recently about the advantages of incorporating their practices means that today...
Workplace Violence
On June 15, 2010, the Bill 168 amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Act come into force. The amendments require virtually all Ontario employers to conduct a violence risk assessment and to implement policies to address workplace harassment and violence. ...
It's Administrative Professional's Day & we have a lot to celebrate !
Today is Administrative Professional’s Day. In our firm this is a big deal because it’s our chance as lawyers to celebrate our fantastic support staff who make our jobs easier and create the enjoyable work environment in our firm. These are not just words we throw...
End of an era
For the past 11 years our firm has hired Articling Students. These are men and women who have finished their law degrees, completed the required Law Society seminars and/or exams depending on when they graduated Law School and spent 12 or 10 months with our firm,...
Spring Cleaning
It is the time of year again when we start sending out our corporate maintenance reminder letters. And as such, I thought it would be appropriate to cover that issue here. Various provincial and federal statutes require that corporations meet basic requirements in...
The Law has a sense of humour – honest !
April Fools Day is almost upon us and as tempting as it is to prank our Blog, I think that April Fools jokes are probably best left to my personal, rather than professional life (my family is hereby on notice of potential pranks and warned that any pranks played on...
Landlord Liability for Tenant Damages
A recent Court of Appeal case affirming an earlier Supreme Court decision, provides some interesting, and possibly surpirsing, commentary on the allocation of risk in commercial leases. In 1044589 Ontario Inc. carrying on business as Nantucket Business Centre v AB...
Planning For a Business Break-up
There is a great article in the Globe and Mail this week about the breakup of the business partnership behind the popular restaurant Le Papillon. The story is an excellent example of what can go right when people plan ahead for the future of a business, and when,...
Massive Changes to the Internet Domain Name System
Are you ready for the changes that are coming to the internet domain name registry system? If you do business on the internet, or if your online presence represents a significant aspect of your brand, then you better get ready. After years of consultation and...
Go Canada – Own the Podium !
We are interrupting the usual legal topics on this blog due to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Boy do I love the Olympics – you? Boy do I love controversy - of course I do, I’m a trial lawyer. Boy do I love the concept of Owning the Podium - if only it were actually...
The Expectation of Privacy in the Workplace
We are often asked to act for clients who have issues that stem from a conflict of privacy expectations in the workplace. The expectation never seems to come to a head until there is point issue such as a termination or a workplace incident. At that point we’re...
Lawyer Client Confidentiality
One of the benefits of using a lawyer instead of an accountant or paralegal is that what you tell your lawyer cannot be revealed to others. Many people don't realize that if they have evaded income tax and speak to their accountant about it, the accountant can be...
Changes to a Contract
This week NBC announced that its failed experiment with late night television in prime time was coming to end – sending Jay Leno back to 11:35 p.m. and bumping Conan O’Brien back after midnight. I’m not privy to the details of either Leno’s or O’Brien’s contracts,...
New Year, New Rules
2010 - it's a whole new world out there for civil litigation - is your law firm up on all the changes? (If we're your law firm, the answer is yes, by the way.) Here is a quick highlight of two important changes: Small Claims Court now goes up to $ 25 000.00 - don't...
Nail down the terms of the contract before the contract is breached
So, lets say you have a contract with, oh lets say your spouse. We don't handle family law here, but let's say it's a prenup. Imagine if you can, that you have stepped out on your spouse during your relatively brief marriage, more times than you have fingers and in a...
Season’s Greetings
It is the time of year when we prepare to celebrate various religious, cultural and seasonal holidays and festivals. As business lawyers, we are increasingly called on to advise clients as to the best way to enjoy these celebrations with a minimum of offence and a...
The Most Reliable Law Firm Ever
Have you been following this ridiculous Rogers/Bell/Telus wars regarding " the most reliable " title ? Wow. A tonne of legal fees have been spent on this and at the end of the day - how important is this victory? Most business people I speak to are not swayed by...
Getting the Name Right
Of all the arcane legal trivia I have picked up over the years of study and practice, one thing that I have never come across, is the reason for the various legal endings that exist for business corporations; there are nine: Limited Limitée Incorporated Incorporée...
Tis the season to be smart
As the holiday season is quickly approaching the issue of the Employer's liability for accidents that can be traced back, even remotely to drinking at a holiday party hosted by the Employer or simply having a beer or two, or spiked Egg Nog is something you need to...