Articles 2020

Further regulation is required to protect vulnerable homeowners from door-to-door sales practices. Some homeowners rent equipment and later discover a lien was registered against their property. The cost of removing that lien to "buy out" the contract is often a shock to those homeowners.

A recent seminar offered by seasoned estate and family law practitioners highlighted the intersection between estate disputes and family law. Amelia Liu provides a succinct summary of the discussion.

Please find below our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for the week of November 22, 2021.

On November 25, 2021, the Ontario Bar Association ("OBA") presented The Honourable Mary Jo Nolan with the Award of Excellence in Alternative Dispute Resolution ("ADR"). The award ceremony was held by Zoom, and over 70 people attended the ceremony.

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently upheld the Ontario Superior Court's decision in Elias Restaurant v. Keele Sheppard Plaza Inc. and acknowledged that the application judge was entitled to find anti-Black racism as a relevant factor behind the landlord’s refusal to renew the lease. This case is noteworthy as it illustrates a court’s willingness to view legal disputes within the context of systemic and interpersonal racism.

In this article, Angela Dittrich and David McRobert review the keynote presentation made by Dr. Dianne Saxe to the OBA’s Environmental Law Mentorship Session on June 29, 2021. Dr. Saxe presented a summary of the scientific evidence supporting human-caused climate change and argued that the moral case for the courts taking action on climate change now has been made. A review of climate litigation to date is also provided.

Conflicts of interest are all around us. The politician who takes a large campaign donation from a special interest group. The realtor who pushes a sale to get their commission. The hiring director who insists their relative is the best candidate for a job. You likely know it when you see it. For legal practitioners, however, conflicts of interest work on us in complex ways and recognizing them is not always intuitive.

“You’re going to burn out.” Many of us have probably heard this phrase, having either been the one telling this to someone or been on the receiving end. With its stay-at-home orders, working from home, and not having a clear division in our days, the pandemic has made burnouts a more prevalent issue across various professions. The author shares some tips on dealing with burnout in the workplace as a young lawyer.

This article explores two instances where noise by-laws were quashed on the grounds of vagueness and uncertainty: 1) noise by-laws that import a subjective standard to determine a noise violation, and 2) noise by-laws that fail to provide any standards, criteria, or guidelines to determine whether or not a person is entitled to an exemption from the noise by-law. It also provides recommendations.

The phenomenon of ghost kitchens has increasingly sparked the interest of many in the restaurant industry. With Covid-19 especially, delivery represents a large and growing proportion of the foodservice industry. This article explores the issues, opportunities, and challenges of ghost kitchens for franchisors amidst a rapidly changing environment.