Articles

The article discusses the report entitled “A Voice Unheard: Brandon’s Story” released by the Ontario Ombudsman on December 19, 2022 concerning an investigation into the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto.

In this first of a series of interviews with our colleagues in the estates bar, we are getting to know a bit more about Doreen So, an estate litigator and partner at Hull & Hull LLP.

The recent decision in P.C.L., by her Litigation Guardians, E.C. et. al. v The Estate of B.L. et. al. considered in what circumstances a person will be found to have demonstrated a “settled intention” to treat an individual as a child, particularly in the context of a SLRA dependant’s support application. Notably, in this case, the court distinguished between an intention and a settled intention, and found on these particular facts that there was no settled intention.

During the Ontario Estates Bench-Bar Liaison Committee's June meeting, the committee discussed several matters of importance to the Estates Bar. Topics addressed included estate model orders, updates to the practice direction, and other ongoing discussion points.

In November, members of the Trusts and Estates Law Section gathered for the monthly Brown Bag Lunch. As always, attendees shared recent developments, and raised interesting practice questions. Topics discussed included a change to the practice direction for the Toronto Estates List, undertakings pursuant to s. 4(3) of the Estate Administration Tax Act, and how to deal with estate trustee compensation where there is tension with the beneficiaries.

At the October Brown Bag Lunch meeting, OBA Trusts and Estates Law Section members discussed a variety of interesting topics, including the Law Society of Ontario’s recent decision to terminate the Certified Specialist Program, holograph Wills, partial intestacies, and situations where most or all assets pass outside of the estate leaving insufficient assets to satisfy debts.

There are two stages to a class proceeding: the common issues stage, and the individual issues stage. While the jurisprudence on the common issues stage (including certification and common issues trials) is well-developed, settlement usually occurs before the individual issues stage is reached. For judges, counsel, and litigants, therefore, this last phase of a class proceeding presents uncharted territory.

This article summarizes Nissan Canada Inc. v Mueller, 2022 BCCA 338, in which the British Columbia Court of Appeal rejected the two-step approach to "some basis in fact" for common issues.

This article summarizes Difederico v. Amazon.com, Inc, 2022 FC 1256, in which the Federal Court stayed a class action under the Competition Act in favour of arbitration.