One of the first questions that comes to the minds of people that are recently separated is how to document any agreement between them and their former spouses on issue such as the division of property, care and time with children, child support and spousal support. Often referred to as separation agreements, these documents formalize…
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By Dennis Ryan, Partner and Head of Natural Resources, Lee Turner, Managing Partner, and Nikita Gush, Associate at Doak Shirreff Lawyers LLP, Kelowna, BC The British Columbia government recently passed the Forest Amendment Act, 2019 SBC c 31 (“Bill 22”), which received royal assent on May 30, 2019. This paper will provide a background of…
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One of the most discussed recent employment law decisions of the last year has to be Galea v. Wal-Mart Canada Corp., 2017 ONSC 245. Since its release on December 7, 2017, the decision has become the benchmark in employment law as what employer conduct will attract punitive damages. Wal-Mart Canada was ordered to pay the…
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In a recent case from British Columbia, Manak v. Workers’ Compensation Board of British Columbia (cob WorkSafe BC), 2018 BCSC 182, the court held that an employee’s repeated breaches of a confidentiality policy justified the employer to terminate her employment for cause. In employment law, for cause terminations are exceedingly difficult to prove with the…
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How much do you stand to save by preparing a will based on a will kit, or with a notary as compared to a wills and estates lawyer? It is true that there are likely savings to be found and you stand to save even more if you don’t even prepare a will (around half…
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You can spend your entire life building an estate. Naturally, you may find yourself wondering what might happen to the wealth you have built and who should inherit it once you’ve passed away. Creating a testamentary trust is an easy way to give yourself peace of mind and ensure that your estate and your loved…
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A recent North Vancouver strata owner took the Strata Corporation to the Civil Resolution and won. He now is allowed to keep his golden retriever dog. He successfully argued the bylaw that restricted “small dog” was too vague and therefore is an unenforceable bylaw. The decision can be found here. The facts of the case…
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In McLeod v. Frontier Sales, 2018 ONSC 1866, the Divisional Court of Ontario dismissed the appeal by an employer who provided working notice to an employee on disability leave and in turn, sought to reduce the amount of reasonable notice that it was required to provide. The case confirms that working notice provided during a…
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In a recent case out of Ontario, Chambers v. Global Traffic Technologies Canada Inc., 2018 ONSC 2000, the court maintained that bonuses earned by an employee prior to termination or during the reasonable notice period are, in fact, payable to the employee despite their being terminated from his/her employment. Additionally, the court awarded nine months’…
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In the Fall of 2018, the BC Provincial Government will introduce a new speculation tax on residential property. This tax will target foreign and domestic speculators who pay little or no income tax in BC as well as satellite families (families who pay little income tax in BC and have high worldwide income). The BC…
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