Civil Litigation
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June 13, 2025
SCC rules admissibility of Crown-led ‘sexual inactivity’ evidence must be decided in a voir dire
Holding 9-0 that evidence of a complainant’s “sexual inactivity” forms part of their “sexual history” — and is therefore presumptively inadmissible at trial — the Supreme Court of Canada has also clarified that the common law screening procedure for Crown‑led sexual history evidence “should mirror” the s. 276 Criminal Code regime that applies in a voir dire for defence-led sexual history evidence.
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June 13, 2025
Alberta court orders Nova to pay Dow $1.62B more in ethylene dispute
The Alberta Court of King’s Bench has ordered Nova Chemicals to pay damages of $1.62 billion to Dow in addition to a previous payment of $1.43 billion for losses related to the companies’ jointly owned ethylene plant in Joffre, Alta.
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June 13, 2025
Former Supreme Court Justice La Forest dies
Former Supreme Court Justice Gérard Vincent La Forest has died. Justice La Forest, whose long legal career also encompassed government work, private sector lawyering, teaching and sitting on an East Coast appeal court, died June 12, according to a news release. He was 99.
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June 13, 2025
Trial judge erred in interpreting resulting trust in property dispute, finds B.C. Court of Appeal
In a mother-son dispute over a property, the B.C. Court of Appeal has found that the lower court judge committed a palpable and overriding error in interpreting the respondent’s resulting trust claim.
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June 13, 2025
Musings do not always give rise to enforceable promises, Ontario court says in dispute over farm
Ontario’s top court has overturned a decision that awarded damages to a man and his partner in a dispute over his parents’ farm, saying the judge in the case was wrong to raise the issue of proprietary estoppel.
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June 13, 2025
Court allows administrator appointment for condo corp.’s various failures
The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has allowed an application to appoint an administrator in a case where a condominium corporation failed to rectify numerous issues on premises.
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June 13, 2025
Tax Court gives guidance regarding shared custody and the Canada Child Benefit in Wong v. The King
Disputes over the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) are among the most sensitive in tax litigation, particularly when they involve shared custody. These cases raise questions that are not only legal and financial but also deeply personal. The recent decision of the Tax Court of Canada in Wong v. The King, 2025 TCC 24, provides important guidance on how courts assess eligibility for the CCB in shared parenting arrangements.
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June 13, 2025
Kramer v. Kramer?
We are all familiar for example with the iconic 1932 House of Lords case of Donoghue v. Stevenson, where the court broke the ice on the law of negligence enabling the customer to successfully sue the manufacturer of a bottle of ginger beer that contained a non-invited snail. AI will generally give you a decent summary of the case. But what might happen if in our search we throw in some random word, like say “Seinfeld”?
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June 13, 2025
Injury law in the digital age: Embracing new tools and technologies
From wearable devices that track health in real-time to AI summarizing dense legal contracts in plain language, injury law is being transformed by technology. Courts increasingly admit digital evidence, meaning injury law faces unprecedented opportunities and ethical pitfalls. As a result, lawyers who fail to adapt risk leaving clients at a disadvantage.
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June 13, 2025
Rupert Murdoch’s family trust: Changing your mind can be hard
The elements of the recent Murdoch family trust dispute are a real-life drama even more interesting than an episode of Succession, thought to be based on the Murdoch family’s trials and tribulations.