Commercial and Estate Litigation Blog
torah law

Is Litigating In The Civil Court System A Rejection Of Torah Law?

By Charles B. Wagner, Gregory M. Sidlofsky and Rachael Kwan For lawyers who represent Orthodox Jews in litigious proceedings it is important to understand their worldview. It is a fundamental belief of Orthodox Judaism that G-d gave the Jewish people the Torah at Mount Sinai and that those holy laws govern every aspect of a Jew’s life including the adjudicating of disputes. To adherents of that belief, litigating in the civil court system constitutes a rejection of Torah law. Accordingly, Jewish law mandates that disputes between Jews are to be resolved through an Orthodox Jewish Court called a “Beis Din”. However, despite…

Read more
power of attorney

A Power Of Attorney Primer

My friend Moe was appointed an attorney. He took on the role with the attitude – “how hard could it be?” He then asked me where he could find a Power of Attorney for Dummies book. I could not find one. So in honour of my friend Moe I wrote this primer on what to do once you have been named as a power of attorney for property.

Read more

Advising The Orthodox Jewish Litigant

The purpose of this paper is to provide litigation lawyers and other interested parties with insight into the specific needs of Orthodox Jewish clients. It is important in developing a litigation strategy for those clients to understand how some of the tenets of their faith impact on the litigation of disputes and the financial and personal risk that the clients may be placed in as a result.

Read more
Taking the Money

Taking all the money out of the joint account?

What happens when two people have a joint bank account and one of them decides to withdraw all the money? That’s one of the questions that the British Columbia Court of Appeal (“BCCA”) addressed in Zeligs v. Janes]. The case is a good case to read for those who want to better understand the law of joint tenancy, tenancy in common and joint bank accounts. For the purposes of this blog our focus is on just one question – when one joint tenant empties out the account, what are the rights of the other joint tenant? Let’s review the case and then discuss the BCCA’s conclusions on this point.

Read more
Supreme Court of Canada

Right to Refuse to Refer Patients to Physicians For Assisted Suicide?

Do Canadian doctors have a right to refuse to refer patients to physicians who will assist them to commit suicide?

The unanimous decision in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General), released on February 6, 2015, drastically changed the landscape of Canadian law with respect to physician-assisted death (“PAD”).

The Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) set aside those provisions in the Criminal Code that criminalized PAD. The Carter decision specifically does not impose any obligation on doctors to participate in any way in PAD and leaves the balancing of patients’ and doctors’ rights to first be addressed by the legislature and regulating bodies. In its newly introduced legislation, Bill C-14, Prime Minister Trudeau’s Liberal government chose not to address the issue. The College of Physicians and Surgeons (the “College”) wants to impose an obligation on physicians to make referrals to patients seeking PAD.

Read more

Entitlement to Support Despite Prenuptial Agreement

When wealthy people marry, their lawyers often advise them to ensure that their fiancé signs a prenuptial agreement. The goal is to protect the wealthy person’s family in case, the marriage breaks up and/or the wealthy spouse dies. So, if the couple each hire good lawyers and the prenuptial contract clearly spells out their agreement, is that ‘pre-nup’ still open to challenge? Maybe. Let’s look at the law.

Read more

Rule 49 Offers: No such thing as a near miss

The expense of litigation is a top concern for all clients. So, if you are involved in a lawsuit and want to try to ensure that you have the best shot at recovering your expenses when successful, what should you do? One key option is to make a Rule 49 offer to settle.The timing of an offer to settle is important and can have a significant impact down the road. Now you might ask why anyone would offer to settle a fight when it’s either just getting started or getting really close to the trial that you’ve spent so long preparing for. The answer is a simple one: protecting your ability to maximize the return of your legal costs.

Read more
power of attorney

Still Don’t Have a Power of Attorney for Healthcare?

No one likes talking about getting sick or dying. But in today’s world, choosing a Power of Attorney (POA) is a difficult conversation we need to have with our loved ones. A Power of Attorney grants a person of your choosing the power to make important financial and medical decisions on your behalf, should you be unable to.However, studies show that 56% of Canadians have not written their will or powers of attorney. As a result, there are a growing number of families that have had to deal with difficult, stressful situations when a family member becomes ill or incapacitated.

Read more

Attempted Suicide Is Not A Quasi Advanced Directive!

According to a recent news report, certain doctors in Quebec declined to revive patients who attempted suicide. Their rationale? The attempt to kill oneself constituted an advanced directive. I specifically am not commenting on any possible criminal liability, if any, because criminal law is not my expertise. But, as a lawyer who is certified as a specialist in estates and trusts law, I wholly disagree with the characterization of a suicide attempt as constituting an advanced directive. As a person who believes in the sanctity of life I take exception to the conduct of those doctors in Quebec.

Read more
Back To Top