Most people are not used to being involved in litigation. For all but the most experienced litigants, participating in the litigation process is stressful and often downright scary. One of the most anxiety causing steps is the discovery process. Representing frightened clients at discovery can be difficult.
Courts in the United States frequently seek assistance from Canadian courts to compel residents to produce evidence, either by way of document production or examinations. These letters of request for judicial assistance, or “letters rogatory”, are statutorily permitted under Canadian federal and provincial legislation. Canadian courts give significant weight to these US judicial requests and will rely heavily on the principle of international comity[1. The Supreme Court of Canada in Morguard Investments Ltd. v. De Savoye, (1990) 3 SCR 1077 defined “international comity” to mean “the recognition which one nation allows within its territory to the legislative, executive or judicial…
Imagine the following scenario. John and Edward open a shop together in 2009. While running the shop, John steals $1,000 out of the register. Edward finds out and confronts John who apologizes and promises not to do it again. Three years pass, the partnership breaks up and in anger Edward steals pens from the business worth $1,000. John sues Edward for the theft of merchandise. What are Edward’s options?
A recent article in the financial post cited a CIBC Poll of 3,021 randomly selected Canadian Adults, which found that 76% of Canadian parents with a child 18 years or older would give their kids a financial boost to help them move out, get married, or move in with a partner.
We only litigate. In our collective experience, the lawyers at our firm have witnessed a great deal of conduct by lawyers toward other lawyers that falls far short of what the Rules of Professional Conduct require. We have also witnessed individuals representing themselves who appear to feel licensed to insult and verbally abuse opposing counsel and even the court.
Douglas and Shila Gamoff listed their home for sale for $2,000,000. They had 18 showings leading to a bidding war. The prospect of competing against multiple offers prompted Yixing Hu and David Lea to make an offer to buy the house for $2,250,000. Their offer was accepted. But sometime after signing the agreement of purchase and sale, the purchasers had buyers’ remorse. David Lea pleaded with the vendors to let him out of the deal. The buyers felt they overpaid.
So, legally speaking, when can a buyer rescind their agreement to purchase a property? When can the seller keep the deposit?
One of the first things to happen when the relationship between a minority shareholder and the majority goes bad is that the minority is often denied information about the business. This may include being denied access to corporate records that are essential for any shareholder to know what is going on in their company.It is very common in oppression cases for a minority shareholder to be, or claim, that he or she has been “excluded” from the business. Being cut-off from corporate information can certainly be a form of exclusion. When the minority shareholder is not part of management, or has been excluded from management, the lack of information concerning the business can leave the shareholder completely in the dark about what is happening at the business and how it is performing financially. This is untenable for someone who has an ownership stake in the business – it is also contrary to the law.
if you ask the typical accountant about an estate freeze, he or she will tell you that smart people who are in a growth business are well advised to consider an estate freeze in order to defer taxes. In an estate freeze, the owner of the business will take steps to freeze the value of that business today and ensure that the future growth (and any capital gains on it) passes on to the next generation. Arguably, if properly implemented, by taking these steps the present owner can maintain control of the business while deferring the capital gains tax which would otherwise be paid upon the death of the owner on the increase in value. That may be how tax planners see an estate freeze, but there is another side to this question.
Lara Khoury, a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, McGill University, observed that “…the accounting profession has evolved greatly. Modern accountants, once only bookkeepers, have gradually been attributed a large range of responsibilities. They now not only prepare, investigate, and audit accounts, but also perform important advisory, reporting, investigatory, regulatory, and administrative functions. This new diversity in their functions exposes them to a greater risk of liability towards a larger range of people”.