The Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure (the “Rules“) is thick and voluminous. The better one knows the Rules, the better one will be at advancing or defending a civil proceeding. The more lawyers or lay people work with the Rules,…
Online defamation is an unfortunate reality for many businesses and individuals. Negative online reviews can deter customers away from a business, undermine employee morale, and divert resources to respond to defamatory commentary. Similarly, for individuals, online defamation has the potential…
The legal maxim of caveat emptor, roughly translated as “buyer beware,” is a well-entrenched principle of Ontario real property law. According to this general principle, a buyer of land assumes the cost of any defects in the land she buys…
When a person receives money or property without giving something in return, the law presumes he or she has an obligation to return it to the person from whom he or she received it. This presumption, known as the presumption…
From time to time, we meet with employees who have been given notice of termination and want to know what happens to their severance pay if they decide to resign during the working notice period. Are they still entitled to…
In this Ontario Superior Court decision, Justice MacDougall considered the case of a manager who was demoted in title and had his direct reports removed from his supervision. The issue was whether this constituted constructive dismissal, especially considering that his…
Under the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 21.1, civil litigation trials in Toronto, Ottawa, and Windsor are subject to the mandatory mediation program. Under this program, actions that are subject to case management must be mediated by a private-sector…
Short Term (STD) or Long Term Disability (LTD) benefits provide income replacement benefits to workers who become temporarily or permanently disabled. In law, the LTD or STD insurance policy is a contract between the insured and the benefit provider. Under…
Unpaid internships are becoming more common in the labour market and are replacing entry level positions in various industries. Typically, unpaid internships have been the means of gaining experience in the television, film, and print media industries. Unpaid internships are…
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision Rahman v. Cannon Design Architecture Inc., 2022 ONCA 451 (“Rahman”) re-affirms the general rule that a contract, including an employment contract, must be interpreted objectively without considering the parties’ subjective understanding of its terms.…
Does your company conduct pro forma performance reviews? Do your non-unionized employees sometimes receive group salary raises in the standard course when their individual performance does not merit a raise? Performance reviews are important human resources management tools. Unfortunately, performance…
Imagine you are a successful commissioned salesperson, having diligently worked for 15 years at Company X. You sell widgets and are paid a commission based on a percentage of the net profit of every order you close. Your compensation formula…
Spurred by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Ontario courts have rapidly introduced new technologies to enable court hearings to proceed virtually. One important development is the introduction of the evidence-management software CaseLines. CaseLines allows parties to…
Trial courts continue to iron out the practicalities of the “culture shift” called for by the Supreme Court of Canada in Hryniak v. Mauldin, 2014 SCC 7 to apply summary resolution procedures that are shorter and less expensive than trials…
A series of experiments has demonstrated that “equity-seeking” litigants are less likely to settle their claims out of court and are less likely to defer to a rationally justified settlement position. These are litigants who feel that they have been…
A great deal of research in various academic fields has attempted to identify and understand the factors that might explain why certain civil cases settle, while others proceed to trial before a judge or a judge and jury. This research…
Union Trials as Arbitrations An argument that has been advanced by unions seeking the civil enforcement of their fines is that the trial procedure set out in various union constitutions is essentially an arbitration agreement. This argument proposes that when…
The Relationship Between Individual Members and Their Unions is Contractual In Ontario, unions have unsuccessfully advanced two different arguments to try to persuade the courts to enforce internal union fines. Both arguments are premised on an important Supreme Court of…
Virtually every union has a constitution which sets out certain rules and standards of behaviour applicable to all members of the union. For example, when the union is on a legal strike, the constitution will almost always prohibit a union…
In Emeny v. Tomaszewski, 2019 ONSC 3298, Justice Sossin considered what level of damages were warranted where an individual was subjected to serious defamation on social media. In previous decisions, the courts have awarded a high level of damages where…