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Civil and Commercial Litigation
Corporate and Business/Tax Planning
ICBC & Personal Injury Claims
Real Estate and Lending
Wills and Estates/Tax Planning
Civil and Commercial Litigation
A young family from the lower mainland of British Columbia were contemplating a move to the Okanagan Valley. They located a new home that they liked that had all outward signs of being well-built and purchased it. They had no more than moved in than the septic system failed and a large two-storey covered veranda began to sink. In the months that followed water leaked in basement and upper floor windows, and wind began to whistle through gaps in the exterior doors. Investigation revealed that the builder had unlawfully connected a new six bedroom house to a septic system that serviced a pre-existing mobile home and had used substandard practices and materials in the construction of the home. The purchasers went to the lawyer who had acted for them in the real estate purchase but he recognized the claim exceeded his area of practice and the file was brought to Doak Shirreff. A lawsuit was commenced naming the builders and also the local government authority on account of its failure to properly inspect construction as it proceeded.
In due course the matter went to trial, complicated by the fact that the builders declared bankruptcy in the days leading up to trial. Accordingly, it became essential that the claim succeed against the local government if the clients were to have financial recovery from the Defendants.
After seven days of trial, the Court concluded that the builders had breached the standard required to construct the home in a good and workmanlike fashion, but more importantly the Court concluded that the local government inspectors should have caught and directed correction of the glaring shortcomings during the construction stages. Judgment was granted against the Defendants, jointly and severally in an amount necessary to correct the defects in the home. The amount of the Judgment before interest and costs exceeded an offer that the clients had earlier offered to accept in full satisfaction of their claim, showing the reasonableness of the position the clients had leading up to trial. When interest and costs were added to the Judgement, it effectively doubled the claim. This shows that we were right in analysing the merits of our clients' position, had maintained a reasonable position throughout negotiations, and proves the lack of wisdom of pursuing an untenable position through trial.
This is an example of how we produced results for our clients. We can help you achieve results with your ongoing needs, simply contact our lawyers.
Corporate and Business/Tax Planning
After 23 years developing a successful business throughout British Columbia, one of our clients recently sold his business to a large multi-national purchaser.
The purchaser originally approached our client with an interest in purchasing the assets of his business. The purchaser also knew the importance that our client's personal skills played in developing the business and wanted to protect the goodwill it was going to purchase.
When our client asked us to assist him in negotiating the deal, we set out to negotiate a structure which would result in the client maximizing the after tax money he could put in his pocket.
We negotiated a change in the purchaser's thinking which saw it acquire our client's shares in his operating company. We also negotiated a commitment by the purchaser to employ our client for two years to assist in managing the business in the transition between owners, after which our client could not compete against the business in British Columbia for a period of five years.
We made suggestions about the structure of the proposed deal in consultation with the client's chartered accountants and negotiated a new structure for the business sale. These restructuring changes allowed our client to minimize income taxes and to take home several tens of thousands of dollars more than he would have, with the way the deal was structured originally.
This is an example of how we produced results for our client. We can help you achieve results with your ongoing needs, simply contact our lawyers.
ICBC & Personal Injury Claims
Approximately three years ago one of our clients was involved in a serious car accident when a drunk driver ran a red light and collided with the driver's side of our client's vehicle. Our client was nearly killed and suffered a severe brain injury, orthopaedic injuries and soft tissue injuries. Our client was hospitalized for three months and began undergoing intensive rehabilitation. Before the accident our client had worked as a skilled trades person in an occupation that he greatly enjoyed and provided him with a good standing living. As a result of the accident our client was rendered incapable of working at his former or any occupation. Our client was treated by several doctors who are all of the view that our client's injuries would be permanent although he had recovered to a level where he was able to function almost independently.
We were retained to insure that our client received all of the damages he was entitled to by law including sufficient damages to replace his loss of income into the future and to provide for rehabilitation benefits he would require indefinitely.
We initiated our client's law suit and began the process of building his case by hiring some of the most skilled medical, vocational and economic experts.
We were able to build our client's case such that it successfully settled at a mediation between the parties for damages in excess of One Million Two Hundred Thousand ($1,200,000) Dollars. Most importantly, our negotiations insured that our client's financial, medical and rehabilitative needs would be met for the remainder of his life. It was also important to our client that we were able to resolve his claim without the necessity of putting him through examinations and a trial.
Real Estate and Lending
One of our clients has been operating her business in Kelowna for approximately ten years. She had just decided she needed to sell her present location and move to bigger premises, when she was approached by someone interested in buying her location.
Without much planning and in the heat of the moment, a Contract of Purchase and Sale was signed to sell the premises. It wasn't until the client went looking to see about replacing her property the next day, that she realized the sale of her property was for about half its fair market value and she would not be able to buy a replacement premises for anywhere near what she would receive on the sale.
The client immediately came to see us in a panic and wanted to know what could be done to get out of the deal.
We reviewed the Contract of Purchase and Sale, the conduct of the parties regarding the negotiation, and the things that occurred since the Contract was signed. We were able to find a clause in the Contract that the buyer had ignored up to that point in time, which we used as a means of having our client declare the Contract at an end. The buyer disagreed with our interpretation about the Contract, but once the buyer's lawyer discussed the Contract and the parties' intentions with us, the Contract was declared at an end and the deal was void.
Because of our knowledge of the law, we were able to help our client avoid the catastrophic results of a bad agreement and ensure that she was not having to buy a replacement premises with a significant shortfall of cash.
This is an example of how we produced results for our client. We can help you achieve results with your ongoing needs; simply contact our lawyers
.
Wills and Estates/Tax Planning
We were recently hired to do some estate planning for a client who was diagnosed with a terminal illness. He had signed a prenuptial agreement with his wife, when they met and were married for a second time. Our client and his wife had adult children from their previous marriages and he did not get along with his wife's children.
The client was concerned about:
- paying probate fees to the government on the value of his estate;
- his wife's children persuading her to challenge the prenuptial agreement and ask for a share of his estate after he had passed on; and
- the ability of one of his daughters to handle the money she would receive from his estate.
He wanted some assistance in planning his affairs so that he could have piece of mind that his family was looked after. We looked at his affairs and gave him some helpful advice.
Probate fees are paid to the government when an executor applies to the Supreme Court for approval to administer an estate. The fees are based on a percentage of the value of the assets that belong in an estate, but are not charged on assets that do not flow through the deceased's Will. Using properly established joint tenant ownership and transfers during his lifetime, we were able to structure the client's affairs so that there were very few assets in his estate when he passed on. The probate fees that would have originally been paid were $9,100, however careful planning meant the actual probate fees were reduced to $250.
The same structuring and transfer techniques allowed the client to continue with the full use of his assets during the remaining portion of his life, however at or after his death most of the assets had been removed from his estate. At his death, the client's estate had a negligible value, meaning that if the children of his wife had persuaded her to challenge the prenuptial agreement and the Will, then there would have been no assets in the estate to fight over. This eliminated the possibility of a costly and emotional Court case.
The client's concern about his daughter was eliminated by transferring assets during his lifetime into a living trust established to benefit his daughter. This trust was set up with a trustee to administer money for his daughter during her lifetime and to provide her with a monthly allowance and the discretion to pay for extraordinary expenses. As this trust was not set up using assets in his estate, the daughter was not able to challenge the terms of the trust, or to use the Wills Variation Act to change the terms of the legacy to her.
This is one example of how we produced results for our client, and we can help you with your ongoing needs, simply contact our lawyers.
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