Articles 2021

In this short essay, Antonio DiMinno and Daniel Rizzi talk about their story from planning on starting their respective practices in law school, to their present operation of a law firm together. They discuss the lessons learned along the way and hope to share some of those lessons with you.

In this article, an anonymous member of the OBA discusses their experience with making mistakes in their legal practice and the resources available to avoid making mistakes in the future.

In this article, Birute Luksenaite talks about her first experience doing a spot-audit and the lessons she's learned along the way.

In this article, Harold Arkin uses two case studies from his personal injury practice to illustrate how an impasse in motor vehicle mediation can be solved with the passage of time and the cooling of passions - but as with anything in dispute resolution, there are no guarantees.

Please find below our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for the week of April 12, 2021. The Court addressed the interpretation of a commitment letter for a commercial loan cancelled by the lender as a result of the borrower’s failure to satisfy the conditions of financing, statutory assignment and trust provisions of section 267.8 of the Insurance Act, and equalization payments in a family law decision.

The Ontario Court of Appeal recently ruled that systemic negligence claims against governments are indeed a tenable avenue for class-wide recovery. While the decision in Francis v. Ontario is the third time in two years that the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled solitary confinement is unconstitutional, it was the first time a Canadian appellate court made an aggregate damages award for systemic negligence in the context of a judgment.

A great deal has been written, particularly since the recent U.S. Congressional campaign, studying the increasing predominance and impact of harmful language directed towards female candidates and politicians on social media platforms. Although few female politicians could discount the benefits of using social media to connect with and mobilize their constituency, the impacts of online sexism, harassment and threats disproportionately targeted at female politicians online is undeniable.

This article discusses the case of Hicks v Ontario Ombudsman and orders under s.140 of the Courts of Justice Act determining someone to be a vexatious litigant.