Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

As a lifelong Canucks fan, I will never forget the video footage of Todd Bertuzzi tackling Steve Moore and the subsequent North American wide television coverage.  This incident was back in the news recently because Master Dash of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered production of the Minutes of Settlement among Todd Bertuzzi, Marc Crawford (the former coach of the ...

In April 2006, B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Act (“CFA”) came into force.  Seven Canadian provinces now have similar legislation. 

The CFA provides a mechanism for the government, through the Director of the Civil Forfeiture Office, to seek the forfeiture of the “proceeds of unlawful activity”.  Forfeiture is ordered by the Court when it is proven that property is ...

The press is riddled with stories concerning perceived problems with the court system.  Various commentators say it is too slow, too expensive and procedurally unwieldy.  These concerns have led some to conclude that arbitration is a better alternative. Arbitration agreements do have risks which parties should understand before agreeing to an alternate form of ...

What is civil contempt of court? A fair question given the Ontario Court of Appeal's recent decision to uphold a 14 month sentence for civil contempt in the case of Barry Landen. Mr. Landen had defrauded the estate of his good friend Paul Penni of millions of dollars. This 14 month sentence arose not from the crime Landen committed (for which to date he has served only a 45 day ...

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.  ...

The court process in Canada’s two western most provinces have much in common.  Prominently, new Rules of Civil Procedure has come into effect in both British Columbia and Alberta in the last 8 months.  Rules of Civil Procedure, often called Rules of Court, establish the procedures by which lawsuits are commenced and proceed in the superior courts of each province.

In British ...

On October 28, 2010, a panel commissioned by the Ontario Attorney General delivered its report, recommending that the province enact legislation to address so-called strategic litigation against public participation or “SLAPP” suits.  The panel was chaired by Mayo Moran, the dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.  According to the government’s press ...

The repercussions of the first Gulf War have now made their way to the courts of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada has recently weighed in on whether Kuwait Airways Corp. ("KAC") could enforce in Canada a C$84 million judgment against the Republic of Iraq.

In 1990, Iraq invaded and occupied Kuwait. Iraq ordered its national airline to appropriate aircraft and equipment ...

No day goes by without some new internet peril being drawn to our attention.  The most recent evil is an internet based program called Firesheep.   Like others (i.e. Wireshark, Tshark, Snort, Nmap, etc.), this program, a free download on the internet, allows users to troll cyberspace for open WiFi networks and, by doing so, access personal data and communications.  The danger in ...

Recently, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that Conrad Black could proceed with six internet based libel actions in Ontario (Black v. Breeden, 2010 ONCA 547).  The claims are based upon an investigation into Lord Black’s conduct as chairman of Hollinger that was published on the Hollinger website.  The Defendants are directors, advisors and a vice president of Hollinger.