The knock at the door
The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal just dealt with an interesting impaired driving/over 80 case. There was a very minor fender bender while cars were parking. A witness thought one of the drivers was impaired and called in the vehicle type and license number to the police The police looked up the registered owner […]
Best of intentions, can lead to dangerous consequences
Governments, at the behest of “progressive forces” years ago, created Human Rights Tribunals in each of the provinces. There is even a federal one, which is restricted to matters of federal law. They seem to love their authority and ability to “make waves.” A Quebec Human Rights Tribunal recently disciplined a comedian for offensive speech. […]
Lawyer civility, the supreme question
Some of you may know that there exists a criminal law contempt of court concept. In addition, there is a civil law (party v party law, as compared to government against citizen criminal law) contempt of court concept. The punishment for a criminal contempt of court is up to a judge and can include jail. […]
Limitation Act change, the good and the bad, and the Orwellian
Our provincial legislature, ever conscious of the “woman’s vote” has amended the limitations act to eliminate any limitation period for lawsuits alleging sexual assault. Thus, those of you males who went to any base, being 1st, second, third or fourth, anytime in your life before receiving provable explicit permission are at risk of a lawsuit. Since you […]
Defamation within a club
From time to time, I get hired to pursue defamation claims. For some reason it seems to happen in London and in Sarnia of all places. Defamation is a broad term, which includes two strands of law, one being slander and the other being libel. Slander is spoken, and libel involves the written word. Both […]
Testimony via video link
In a criminal trial, it is possible to have a witness testify via video link. The court in Walkerton recently took some time to consider this issue. The Crown put forward some evidence that an important civilian Crown witness lived out West and that arrangements had been made to have her testify via a court […]
Estate mediation spreading across the province through rule changes
Lawsuits are governed, procedurally, by the “rules of civil procedure.” These rules are in large hard bound books, with the accompanying forms in a companion soft cover addition. The reason the books are so large, is that they contain case precedent annotations- but, I digress. There are some special rules governing estate matters. They were recently […]
Fixed term employment contracts, a potential employer nightmare
Fixed term employment contracts have become quite popular these days, given the fluidity inherent in the modern labour market. These will often have “termination for just cause” provisions and or damage limitation clauses. Often, however, the courts will find that the impugned worker conduct does not merit a just cause (“no money payable”) result and […]
A criminal file, first interview
Some of you may wonder what goes on in a first interview in a criminal file. First, many people bring a support person, who is often a parent or spouse. This can cause confidentiality concerns, especially if that support person could become a witness for either the government (Crown) or the defence. Thus, even if […]
First interview, the questions your civil litigation lawyer will ask himself
To understand this topic, one must have a general grasp of what the phrase “civil litigation” means. It can mean a legal dispute between two parties, that is not family law, or criminal law. That is not an all encompassing definition, but it will do for now. You will be filled with the emotions inherent to your […]