News update

Since July 2020 the Ministry of the Attorney General’s Recovery Secretariat (MAG-RS) has been providing daily Courthouse HVAC reports via email in response to stakeholder interest and concerns regarding COVID-19.  The OBA has been making these reports available through our Courthouse Status tab . The MAG-RS has advised that as of July 26, 2021, individuals will now be able to access up-to-date daily HVAC readings and ask questions directly to Infrastructure Ontario through a new Infrastructure Ontario website.

Tribunals Ontario has launched Navigate Tribunals Ontario, an online tool that guides users to identify situations in which the Landlord and Tenant Board can help resolve issues. The application provides users with information about their rights and responsibilities and tribunal specific rules and processes. It is not intended to provide legal advice. The OBA recently made a submission to Tribunals Ontario respecting the development of an online dispute resolution system, advocating for the essential elements in utilizing technology to ensure a system that facilitates access to lawyers and promotes fair and expeditious outcomes.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario has amended its Consolidated COVID-19 Practice Direction and revised its Counsel Slip and Hearing Information Form. The amendments to the Consolidated COVID-19 Practice Direction can be found at Appendix B of the Practice Direction. The Counsel Slip and Hearing Information Form has been revised to allow those that appear before the Court to provide their prefix, pronouns and/or name pronunciation (through phonetic spelling or a link to an audio recording

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Appeals Tribunal has announced that the Tribunal Decision Search Database will return to the WSIAT website on July 17, 2021. The database allows users to search decision summaries, and links to full text of decisions in HTML and pdf format. The full text of Tribunal decisions continues to be searchable on CanLII. The Librarians at the Ontario Workplace Tribunals Library (OWTL) may also assist you with searching for WSIAT decisions and other research. Library services are available by email; please contact the OWTL librarians at owtl@wst.gov.on.ca.

The Court of Appeal released today housekeeping amendments to the Practice Direction Concerning Civil Appeals at the Court of Appeal for Ontario.

The Hon. David Lametti, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, has announced that six new justices have been appointed to the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. The OBA congratulates Justice William D. Black, Justice Ian R. Smith, Justice Brian D. Dubé; Justice Jill R. Presser, Justice P. Tamara Sugunasiri, and Justice Tami L. Waters, Principal at Tami L. Waters.

Tribunals Ontario has now launched Navigate Tribunals Ontario, an online tool that guides users to identify situations in which the Landlord and Tenant Board can help resolve issues. The application provides users with information about their rights and responsibilities and tribunal specific rules and processes. It is not intended to provide legal advice. The OBA recently made a submission to Tribunals Ontario respecting the development of an online dispute resolution system, advocating for the essential elements in utilizing technology to ensure a system that facilitates access to lawyers and promotes fair and expeditious outcomes.

On July 1, 2021, reforms to continency fees came into effect through the following: ·       Solicitors Act – amendments including the repeal of s. 28.1(8), which prohibited the inclusion of costs in the amount on which a contingency fee calculation is based. ·       O. Reg. 563/20: Contingency Fee Agreements – a new regulation requiring the use of a new standard form Contingency Fee Agreement (CFA), incorporated by reference. ·       Rules of Professional Conduct – amendments pertaining to required disclosures, information and reporting relating to CFA’s. The OBA is presently working with the Law Society and Ministry of the Attorney General to remedy potential situations in which the application of the new requirements may be broader than intended.

The Law Society of Ontario has made amendments to the standardized Document Registration Agreement (DRA) for two party and multi-party situations, which govern the relationship between the parties in electronic registrations until all documents and funds have been exchanged and electronic registration has been effected. The OBA has been advocating for the LSO to update these documents to make them consistent with current practices and, accordingly, we welcome this move by the LSO. The new DRAs address a number of critical issues that were not in previous versions of the documents including: vendor take back mortgages; documents returned for correction by the Land Registry Office; door codes and wiring of funds. The updated DRAs are now available on the Electronic Registration of Title Documents page of the Law Society's website. The DRA is an important part of every transaction and we encourage all counsel to familiarize themselves with it. We will be offering programming in the near future to assist counsel with this. For ease of review, blacklines of the new DRAs (to the old versions) are available here and here. The Real Property Section of the OBA is continuing to advocate for further updates including the mortgage discharge guidelines. If you have any questions, please email advocacy@oba.org.

The final regulations to implement the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (ONCA) and the new Ontario Business Registry System (OBR) have been filed and can be found below.