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December 06, 2024
A recent news release from Aird & Berlis LLP announced the addition of Daniel Hunter, Linda Guma and Evan Pernica as associates.
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December 06, 2024
Appeal by Flanigan from dismissal of his application for family maintenance and support (FMS) against the estate of his late adult interdependent partner, Kirkland. Kirkland died on November 12, 2022, leaving her estate equally to her children in a will dated September 2, 2021, with no provision for Flanigan. The Court of King's Bench issued a grant of probate on February 9, 2023.
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December 02, 2024
Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani announced the appointment of Lindsay R. LeBlanc as a judge of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Victoria, a Nov. 29 news release announced.
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December 02, 2024
Most courts in Canada now have the power to validate wills that do not comply with the requisite formalities of execution and submit them to probate, with the exception of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Northwest Territories. Ontario is the most recent province to introduce the will-validating power, having enacted s. 21.1 of the Succession Law Reform Act (the SLRA) on Jan. 1, 2022.
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November 29, 2024
While modern artificial intelligence (“AI”) has already proved an immensely useful tool, with IBM’s Watson serving as an early example of a natural language processor able to receive and respond to plain language inquiries in plain language with a high degree of accuracy, it has also proven to have its limitations. Newer systems, such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini, are becoming ubiquitous and, to the extent these systems are designed to be responsive to inquiries, they are limited by factors such as the clarity and precision of the questions posed to them.
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November 29, 2024
Ontario’s law society used its November Convocation to unveil a new working group focusing on the “long-term future” of the province’s paralegals and to codify rules around the confidentiality of information gathered in tribunal investigations.
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November 27, 2024
Find out what lawyers really think about their profession in Law360 Canada Pulse’s Lawyer Satisfaction Survey.
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November 26, 2024
Fines issued against Canadian financial institutions, businesses and individuals for violating anti-money laundering laws and regulations reached a record $26.1 million during the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog.
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November 26, 2024
November is “Make-a-Will Month” — an opportunity to highlight the critical importance of having a will. With almost half of Canadians lacking a will, it is vital to raise awareness about how this document can protect families and ensure that wishes are respected after death, especially for individuals with significant wealth or other complexities.
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November 26, 2024
A recent survey of the legal profession is showing high levels of satisfaction with things like collegiality and collaboration at their firms and opportunities for advancement, but there is one issue that continues to remain a problem and has no easy fix — stress.
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November 25, 2024
A Nova Scotia lawyer hopes the exoneration of a local funeral director in a case where the wrong body was cremated serves as a “wake-up call” for the province to update its “vague” rules governing the profession.
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November 25, 2024
A recent survey of lawyers is indicating overall satisfaction with many aspects of the profession, despite some lingering concerns about things like stress and compensation.
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November 21, 2024
According to Statistics Canada, more Canadians than ever before are adopting “a smarter and more connected lifestyle,” with Internet use amongst Canadians over the age of 14 in 2022 reaching 95 per cent.
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November 20, 2024
Directors of charitable corporations operating in Ontario are subject to strict requirements to act without personal benefit — meaning they cannot be paid for serving as directors or for other services unless authorized by court order or pursuant to Ontario Regulation 4/01 under the Charities Accounting Act (the Regulation).
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November 19, 2024
If public confidence is a litmus test for the health of the justice system, a new national poll suggests Canada’s courts have room to improve.
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November 18, 2024
We’ve all seen the Facebook profiles of departed friends that appear on our timelines, floating by like digital zombies. Although social media platforms like Facebook have introduced procedures such as memorialization and legacy contact to manage the accounts of deceased or incapacitated users, many remain in cyber-limbo due to a lack of a proactive digital legacy plan, as any estate planning lawyer will tell you.
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November 15, 2024
With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Canadian courts are under increasing pressure to address its impact. While some view AI as a possible threat to the rule of law and democracy within Canada’s justice system, AI also holds promise for enhancing court operations, reducing workloads, supporting judicial functions and improving access to justice.
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November 14, 2024
The Supreme Court of Canada’s removal of thousands of pre-1970 (mostly unilingual-English) judgments from its website won’t end an unprecedented Federal Court lawsuit that aims to compel the top court’s registry to fix alleged violations of the Official Languages Act by translating the court’s unilingual decisions into the other official language, says the plaintiff language rights group Droits collectifs Québec.
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November 14, 2024
The decision in Ingram v. Kulynych Estate, 2024 ONCA 678 (Ingram), by the Ontario Court of Appeal addressed whether the 10-year limitation period under s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act R.S.O. 1990, c. L.15 (RPLA) applies to the respondent, Kathleen Ingram’s, constructive trust and unjust enrichment claim against Henry Kulynych’s estate rather than the two-year period under s. 38(3) of the Trustee Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. T.23 (Trustee Act).
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November 11, 2024
In my recent article “Estate freezes: An icebreaker,” I discussed how an estate freeze can be used to “lock in” the value of a family business’ shares at a given point in time and pass on the growth of that business to the business owner’s children. I briefly touched on some of the potential pitfalls that can complicate the execution and maintenance of an estate freeze. One of these complications — and the source of much of the litigation surrounding estate freezes — is the availability of the oppression remedy to the company’s shareholders.
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November 08, 2024
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled 9-0 that the Vavilov “reasonableness” standard for judicial review — informed by some of the Katz Group principles — presumptively applies when courts review whether subordinate legislation is authorized by law.
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November 08, 2024
Recent news releases from Lerners LLP announced the addition of Greg Woodward, Kevin Wilbee, Emily Woods, Orion Boverhof, Megan Linaric and Daniele Sing as associates in the firm’s London offices.
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November 07, 2024
Ontario’s top court has ruled on the correct analytical approach to the interpretation of a consent judgment — an issue it had not weighed in on previously.
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November 07, 2024
In the decision York Condominium Corporation No. 76 v. 10 The Marketplace Ltd., 2024 ONSC 4305, released by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on Aug. 1, 2024, the court examined several issues surrounding a lease amendment dispute in Toronto’s Crescent Town, including a claim of oppression.
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November 05, 2024
Only one year after implementing new reporting rules for trusts under the Income Tax Act, the federal government is already proposing a number of amendments to the reporting regime.