Articles 2020

An overview of the rules applicable to cutting trees in Ontario year-round, which may be particularly relevant during the holiday season, when clients may be considering cutting down their own Christmas tree.

Referral of lien actions to the Small Claims Court is a new process that is now available to the parties if the lien action is for an amount that is within the monetary jurisdiction of the Small Claims Court. The author created this very useful step-by-step guide that describes the transition of a lien action from the Superior Court of Justice to the Small Claims Court once the matter is referred to the Small Claims Court Deputy Judge.

In this article, the author discusses the Divisional Court’s confirmation that adjudicators can determine their own jurisdiction, and the Court’s discussion on whether abandoning or terminating a contract means the contract has “ceased to exist."

This article discusses three recent Ontario court cases in the developing area of Construction Act adjudications, as well as some unanswered questions and lessons learned from the cases and the authors’ own experiences with adjudications so far.

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005 (the "AODA") was enacted with the goal of creating an accessible Ontario by 2025. In 2017, the Health Care Standards Development Committee was asked to develop recommendations for a new accessibility health care standard. The Committee recently published their final recommendations, with broad implications on the health care sector.