A JUDICIAL SHIFT IN THE ENFORCEABILITY OF TERMINATION CLAUSES

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One of the emerging issues in Ontario law has been the judicial rulings against termination clauses in an employer’s offer letter or employment agreement, which set outs an employee’s entitlement on termination of his or her employment.

Termination “Without Cause”

When an employee is terminated “without cause” an employer is required to provide that terminated employee with working notice that his or her employment is ceasing. For a variety of reasons including sabotage or a hostile workplace, working notice may not be appropriate and as such, an employer may provide a terminated employee with pay in lieu or notice (which would represent the number of weeks the employee would have received had the employee received working notice). Read More

ADVISING CLIENTS ON THE PURCHASE OF A CONDOMINIUM UNDER

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THE (NOT SO) NEW CONDOMINUM ACT

As a result of the introduction of the Condominium Act, 1998, R.S.O. 2001, as amended; (the “Act”), a number of new condominium development options were introduced. Having had the opportunity to act for condominium developers who are completing developments that take advantage of the “newer” concepts such as phased condominiums, common elements condominiums and vacant land condominiums, it seems that not all real estate lawyers acting for condominium purchasers appreciate the distinction between the different types of condominiums. This paper is designed to be a little refresher on the issue. Read More

LAND TITLES ACT APPLICATIONS

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EMERGING ISSUES IN REAL ESTATE

INTRODUCTION

This paper addresses the means by which a property owner may make application to convert the title of the property from either Registry to Land Titles Absolute (LTA) or from Land Titles Conversion Qualified (LTCQ) to Land Titles Absolute Plus (LTA+), thereby providing the land owner with arguably the highest form of title available in the province. The main reasons why an owner would want to make such application would be in order to: Read More

Silver Lining for Creditor Spouses in Bankruptcy?

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 By: Colleen Yamashita and Frank Pignoli

In our practice, we act as insolvency counsel for financial lending institutions, secured creditors, receivers and bankruptcy trustees as well as corporate and personal debtors. When dealing with personal bankruptcies/proposals, family law issues often rise to the surface, which are not easily or sufficiently resolved within the parameters of federal bankruptcy legislation. In our view, conflicts often arise between family law lawyers and lawyers acting for the trustees in bankruptcy/proposals in large part due to the fact that the Bankruptcy Insolvency Act and the provincial family law legislation such as the Ontario Family Law Act often seem to work at cross-purposes. Read More

Considerations in Administering Class Action Settlements

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A presentation co-authored by David Thompson, Scarfone Hawkins LLP & Mary M. Thomson, Gowlings detailing the following:
  • Settlements in class actions versus standalone actions
  • Keeping Your eye on the Approval Hearing
  • General Factors considered by the Court
  • Information to be provided to the Court
  • Required Content in the Notice re the Approval Hearing
  • Factors Assessing Counsel Fees
  • “The Checklist”
  • Issues of Distribution – Funds, Surpluses and Cyprès Awards
View Presentation  

Escrow Closings

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E-REG (TM) AGE

I count myself lucky to be old enough to have closed real estate deals at the registry office. In many ways, life was simpler then. It was easy to tell when a deal was done and you could spend your money – the other lawyer picked up their registered deed and told you that you could spend your money. You knew in turn that they had not yet released the keys to their client by the very fact that they still had the keys. Simple. Read More

The Sale of a Business: One Giant ‘Beauty Contest’

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Beauty contests are competitions where judges scrutinize the personality, talent, appearance and logic of its contestants using a combination of rigid and subjective criteria, to determine, which entrant best exemplifies “beauty.”

While business law is not often correlated to spectacles filled with baton twirling or snippets of autobiographical monologues, there are times when a business will want to parade its attractiveness to a third party, such as a financing bank, much like a beauty contestant will want to win the favour of a panel of judges. When regarded in this manner, the business world is, in a sense, a “giant beauty contest” where players in both the private and public sectors use whatever means at their disposal (i.e. financial statements, client lists, and intellectual property) to gain advantage over competitors, only without peacocking in ostentatious evening gowns. Read More

Practical Tips for the courtroom seminar

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There are two components to advocacy: written advocacy; and the oral presentation .

WRITTEN ADVOCACY

Written advocacy obviously consists of preparation of any materials to be put before the Court whether in the form of pleadings, affidavits, facta, written submissions, etc.

We commend to you the texts referenced in the bibliography dealing with written advocacy. A good book on written advocacy should be on the book shelf of every courtroom lawyer. Read More

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