Unconscionable Conduct and Dependants Support
In this video, two senior lawyers address a colleague's innovative approach on how to defend a claim for support by a child who mistreated their parent.
Will a Dependant be Denied Support for Misconduct?
Ontario’s courts and legislature offer an avenue for dependants to challenge how the estate of the deceased is distributed. While a testator generally has the right to dictate what happens to his/her assets upon death, certain relationships create responsibilities that limit this testamentary freedom, and a court might order that the estate pay the dependant support from the estate, over and above what the testator had intended.But what happens if the dependant mistreated the testator or, in the most egregious cases, caused the testator’s death?
Can people be forced to undergo a capacity assessment?
In this video, lawyers discuss the factors judges consider when children seek court orders to compel a parent to have their capacity assessed. This issue arose in Abrams v Abrams and the lawyers talk about how the court dealt with the issue and what people need to consider when pursuing this type of litigation.
Court Ordered Capacity Assessments
An individual who is determined to be incapable of managing their affairs may require a guardian to oversee and assist them.The Substitute Decisions Act 1992, (the “SDA”) provides that “An order appointing a guardian of property for a person shall include a finding that the person is incapable of managing property and that, as a result, it is necessary for decisions to be made on his or her behalf by a person who is authorized to do so.” But what happens if that individual refuses to have a capacity assessment to determine if they are in fact incapable?
Can Technology Help Wills and Estates Practitioners Avoid Mistakes?
As litigators who often prosecute claims against lawyers accused of negligence, we have observed first-hand the types of mistakes that are often made by lawyers. These mistakes generally stem from a failure to stay informed about the relevant law and/or to adopt and follow best practices when carrying out their duties.Increasingly, we anticipate that best practices will include utilisation of technical innovations. In this blog, we explore some of the ways in which such innovations may assist lawyers in avoiding malpractice errors and thereby reduce negligence claims.
Duty to Account, adverse inference, and disentitlement to compensation
In this very short video lawyers discuss the executor’s duty to account and a seminal case where a judge refused to award any compensation and drew an adverse inference because the executor failed to provide an honest accounting.
Potential Personal Liability of Estate Trustees (and the potential liability of their lawyers if they don’t provide the correct advice)
Plene administravit which is Latin for “fully administered” is a doctrine and defence that is available to an estate trustee when a creditor brings a claim against the estate, but there are no, or insufficient assets in the estate to satisfy any judgment and costs.
Urgent Interim Dependant Support Motions
In this blog, I discuss the framework for Motions for interim Dependant support and compare and contrast two Court decisions to assist the reader to better understand under which circumstances a Court might be more likely to grant interim Dependant support.
Commercial Lease Enforcement and Rent Payments in the Age of COVID-19
This blog focuses on the significant impacts that commercial landlords and tenants are facing and explores the difficult considerations that the court may have to make in determining how to allocate losses that both commercial landlords and tenants are inevitably experiencing during this time.
Limitation Periods in Estates: A case review of Bristol v. Bristol
Evaluating whether a limitation period may apply to prevent a party from pursuing their claim involves a two-stage analysis. First, the court must determine when a claim was “discovered”. Second the court will determine whether the applicant/plaintiff commenced a “proceeding” within the required time period.