May 13, 2026
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed a federal government appeal challenging employment insurance (EI) benefits for a worker who lost his job after being incarcerated, ruling that a claimant’s inability to fulfill a condition of employment is not, by itself, sufficient to disentitle them to EI benefits.
May 13, 2026
The Ontario Court of Appeal has remitted a case to trial in which an insurance provider denied coverage to a greenhouse operator despite it suffering a loss of 23 acres of tomato plants caused by excessive carbon monoxide emissions. It found the judge made numerous errors in the analysis.
May 13, 2026
The vast majority of mediations in Ontario continue to take place virtually. Convenient and often cost-effective, virtual mediation is clearly here to stay — even if I personally would welcome a greater return to in-person mediations (more on that in an upcoming article). It is therefore worth thinking carefully about how virtual mediations can be structured to maximize effectiveness.
May 11, 2026
Canadian law imposes two obligations on all parties to a commercial agreement such as a lease.
May 08, 2026
The Supreme Court of Canada has explained the contours and application of the cause-of-action estoppel branch of the common law doctrine of res judicata, dividing 6-3 in a Newfoundland and Labrador power-of-sale case to hold that the appellant mortgagee’s $4-million claim under a collateral mortgage is res judicata as it had already been determined in an earlier court proceeding.
May 08, 2026
Once an insurance audit has been initiated, a health provider’s actions, including potential missteps, can significantly affect the outcome. Audits conducted by extended health benefits insurers frequently expand beyond routine claim verification and may lead to repayment demands, delistings or complaints to regulatory colleges.
May 08, 2026
In remarks delivered to the House of Commons, the Privacy Commissioner of Canada emphasized the “impact of a rapidly evolving technological environment,” called for modernization of federal privacy laws and advocated for permanent funding of his office.
May 08, 2026
Post-winter injury files are arriving later, and the delay is increasingly being used to defeat claims outright. People are coming forward weeks after a slip on ice, a fall in a parking lot or a low-speed winter collision with symptoms that were not obvious on day one. The incident is often straightforward. The litigation problem is whether the later impairment can be connected, on evidence, to that earlier event.
May 08, 2026
The Ontario Trial Lawyers Association (OTLA) has elected K. Jay Ralston as its president for the 2026–27 term.
May 08, 2026
Spoiler Alert: The following contains plot details from Better Call Saul. Charles McGill, the decorated senior partner in the TV series Better Call Saul, is everything the legal profession tells itself it stands for: principled, authoritative, a guardian of the rule of law. His younger brother Jimmy — the poor, hustling, desperate Saul Goodman — represents everything the profession looks down on. But as artificial intelligence dismantles the gatekeeping function that long justified the legal profession’s self-image, it is worth asking: which one of them is a more accurate reflection of a lawyer?