519-435-9220 jpitblado@pitblado.ca

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 amended, and that really only concerns solicitors (lawyers, who tend not to go to court and prefer to do real estate, wills and estates etc), except for one thing.

Judges have been given the power to order mediation in certain estate litigation matters (and that interests barristers, those lawyers who restrict their practice to court work) and it should also interest taxpayers.

Mediation has been mandatory for years in certain parts of the province, like Toronto and Windsor. Now I suspect we will see judges ordering it in estate disputes (at least the issue of “passing of executor accounts”) and I suspect it will settle quite a few matters without the cost (to the parties and the taxpayer) of lengthy trials.

 

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