Articles

An interview with Karen Perron, president of the Ontario Bar Association.

An interview with Deborah Palter, immediate past-president of The Advocates’ Society.

An interview with Teresa Donnelly, who concluded her second term as treasurer of the Law Society of Ontario this past June.

An interview with Jennifer Gold, immediate past-president of the Women’s Law Association of Ontario.

The 2022-2023 term has officially begun and Section Chair, Rachel Migicovsky and Vice-Chair, Moya Graham are pleased to extend a warm fall greeting to all members of the OBA Civil Litigation Section.

In this article, I discuss mediation in the (hopefully) post-pandemic world; what has changed, how will it look, and what should counsel do to be as effective as possible? While the goal – to get the best possible result for your client – has not changed, I encourage counsel to consider how some of the mechanics and tools available have evolved over time and ensure that they are fully taking advantage of them.

In a recent development, it is now possible to request to receive updated versions of the Estates Procedure Manual automatically. We encourage all estate practitioners to put themselves on this list, in order to ensure that they have the most up-to-date version of the Estates Procedure Manual.

Estate law and family law share a number of common features. The focus of many files in both areas of law is resolving the dispute and allowing clients to move on with their lives (and, where possible, preserving a relationship with the other parties to the dispute). With so much overlap, it may be helpful for estate and family lawyers, respectively, to share perspectives and experiences, and hear of alternative strategies for resolving family disputes.

When a testator dies without providing adequate support for any of his or her dependants, a dependant may bring an application for support under the Succession Law Reform Act. There is a limitation period for bringing such an application. As discussed by Kim Gale and Palak Mahajan, to avoid certain negative consequences, estate trustees would be well-advised not to distribute the estate assets until that time is up.