Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Choosing commercial arbitration over conventional litigation cannot guarantee confidentiality of the process, as a recent decision of the BC Supreme Court shows. The prospect of keeping a commercial dispute confidential has long been recognized as one of the main advantages of arbitration over litigation in the courts, along with the speed of the process, the ability to ...

Governing and managing a strata property can be messy and difficult. Strata owners are generally a disparate group with little in common beyond ownership in the strata. From among this group, a strata council must be elected, usually all volunteers who, to one degree or another, are reluctant participants and untrained in strata governance. Yet, it is the members of the ...

Two of the main benefits of private arbitration are said to be speed and finality. However, the long running case of Sattva Capital Corporation v. Creston Moly Corporation has been a prime example of how court intervention into the arbitration process can lead to arbitration being anything but speedy or final. I first blogged about this case on May 9, 2011 when it had ...

Likely because the application of the law is uncertain, commercial leases generally have detailed clauses dealing with the question of when a piece of equipment or an improvement installed in a premises becomes a fixture or remains a chattel.  The answer matters as fixtures, in law, are considered to be part of the land and, at the end of a lease, ordinarily would revert to the ...

Last year I blogged about a Nanaimo commercial tenant who defeated her landlord’s claim for unpaid rent on the grounds the lease had been fundamentally breached as a result of a pervasive odour. Neither the landlord, nor the tenant could find the source of the smell though it was related to the HVAC system. The odour was adversely affecting the tenant’s retail clothing ...

It is common for someone writing a will to appoint as their executor a family member or friend.  Sometimes this is done without understanding what it means to be an executor.  Sometimes the ability and propriety of the proposed executor is not considered.  Often, the relationship between the proposed executor and the will-maker changes after the will has been written.  ...

In 2012, the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed a defamation claim over a corporate news release that provided general information about the intended response to a lawsuit.  The case was dismissed on the grounds that news releases issued by public companies to report on litigation brought against them are published on occasions of either absolute or qualified privilege.  As such ...

In 2012, the B.C. Court of Appeal decided the case of Loychuk v. Cougar Mountain Adventures Ltd. (discussed in an earlier blog post) In doing so, the Court made a clear pronouncement that people injured while taking part in inherently dangerous activities will be precluded from suing a commercial operator where they signed a release waiving claims in negligence.  Last ...

“The law of succession is among the most archaic areas of private law, and British Columbia legislation dealing with various aspects of succession is highly fragmented, spread throughout a forest of statutes.”

Wills, Estates and Succession,
A Modern Legal Framework,
B.C. Law Institute, 2006

Those words were written nearly a decade ago and described, in brief, the ...

Marko Vesely was recently interviewed by Financier Worldwide for its Commercial Arbitration Annual Review.  This review examines issues and developments in commercial arbitration around the world. In the interview, Marko provides the Canadian perspective, outlining some of the key benefits of arbitration, recent changes to arbitration legislation and the practical ...