Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Class proceedings are a powerful tool for consumers and lawyers.  In practical terms, class proceedings allow otherwise uneconomic claims to be brought and often create large monetary exposure to Defendants.  This occurs through aggregation.  If a class proceeding is “certified”, it will “aggregate” all of the claims of a “class” of claimants into one claim.  ...

I opened an earlier blog post on the topic of defamation over Twitter with the hypothetical question, "How much damage can you do to a person’s reputation in 140 characters?"  Accordingly to Courtney Love's recent settlement of an infamous defamation action against her, the answer seems to be - well over US$400,000.

Former Hole frontwoman Courtney Love found herself ...

Ever since the BC Court of Appeal (“BCCA”) decision in Shimco, practitioners and others have cried out for legislative amendments to the B.C. Builders Lien Act (the “Act”) which would see the elimination of a lien against holdback monies retained by owners and others down the contractual chain.  Prior to Shimco, such a lien was not generally thought to exist.  ...

For many people, Susan Heyes is something of a folk hero.  Ms. Heyes is the proprietor of Hazel & Co., a woman’s clothing store formerly located at the corner of 16th Avenue and Cambie Street in Vancouver.  Like many other businesses located along the Cambie Street corridor, Ms. Heyes’ business was adversely affected by the construction of the rapid transit Canada Line ...