Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

Many parents, late in life, come to realize that one or more of their children are not people they like or respect.  There are usually a myriad of reasons for this, the cause of which depends on who you ask.  But for the parent, their disappointment often leads them to consider making no provision for that child in their will.  To disinherit a child, often in favour of others, is ...

Canada has two official languages – English and French - arising from our unique heritage as a country.  Given this status, one may have assumed both official languages were freely used in the courts across the country.  Not so says the British Columbia Court of Appeal which recently ruled that documents, not in the English language, without a certified translation cannot be ...

In an earlier blog I discussed a B.C. Supreme Court decision involving problem strata owners who had, for years, defied efforts by the strata council to moderate their outrageous conduct.  The case was significant because the court ordered the strata unit sold as the only reasonable means of addressing the problems created by its owners.  The court held that it had ...

On July 18, 2012 the B.C. Medical Services Commission (the “Commission”) released the results of an audit of two private health care facilities in Vancouver, the Cambie Surgery Centre and the Specialist Referral Clinic, which revealed that the two facilities have been billing patients directly for surgical and other medical services that are otherwise covered under ...

Two young friends pool their meagre resources to buy a piece of property together.  Their goal is to build equity and have a place to live.  Alone, neither could afford it.  They split the mortgage payments and share the expenses.  Things go well for the first few years and their equity increases.  Time passes and things change.  One wants to keep the real estate as a long term ...

On August 26, 2011, I blogged on the British Columbia Supreme Court decision in 229 Burrard Residential Limited Partnership v Essolat (“299”).  299 was seen as levelling the ground for disputes under the Real Estate Development Marketing Act  (British Columbia) (“REDMA”).  This decision increased the likelihood that developers would be able to enforce ...

In an earlier blog I discussed a recent decision that recognized the Supreme Court’s ability, in appropriate circumstances, to order that an individual submit to medical examinations as part of the process of determining whether they were competent.  The case involved lay evidence of possible incompetence but the two medical opinions required under the Patients ...

On June 15, 2012, Madam Justice Lynn Smith of the British Columbia Supreme Court released her much anticipated reasons for judgment in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), 2012 BCSC 886 in which she found that certain provisions of the Canadian Criminal Code that prohibit physician-assisted suicide are constitutionally of no force and effect in certain circumstances.

This post was submitted by Lawson Lundell guest author, Toby Kruger.

On May 10, 2012, Marko Vesely and Toby Kruger appeared at the Supreme Court of Canada on behalf of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (“BCCLA”) in A.B. by her Litigation Guardian, C.D., v Bragg Communications.

In this case, a 15 year-old girl (A.B.) in Nova Scotia became aware of a Fake ...

In earlier blogs, I noted the financial success of the Office of the Director of Civil Forfeiture in recovering funds by seeking forfeiture of assets from people who are alleged to have been involved in “unlawful activity”.  As the Director frequently argues, the purpose is to take the profit out of criminal activity, to prevent the use of specific assets to unlawfully ...