Personal Injury
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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
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 12, 2025
Reducing CRR burden: Keep ‘relevance’ as standard, reduce judge-presided conferences
The Civil Rules Review Phase 2 (CRR) report mandates judicial case conferences in two forms: directions conferences and scheduling conferences. In addition, it proposes a completely new standard for productions while removing discovery, which is a cornerstone for ensuring necessary and adequate production. The CRR proposes a new production standard: production of “reliance” and “adverse” documents rather than keeping the current standard of relevance. The net result will be more ambiguity as to which documents are proper productions, and given the absence of discovery, a greater need to obtain full production of all “reliance” and all “adverse” documents.
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June 11, 2025
Employer has duty to investigate both incidents and complaints of harassment: Ontario Appeal Court
Ontario’s highest court has ruled that an arbitrator was wrong to reinstate five Metrolinx employees accused of sexual harassment, saying the company was statutorily obligated to investigate the situation even in the absence of a formal complaint.
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June 11, 2025
Judicial scarcity and Civil Rules Review: We can’t get there from here without more judges
The Civil Rules Review Phase 2 (CRR) states: “There is consensus that the problem of access to timely and affordable civil justice has only gotten worse since Hryniak, particularly following the Supreme Court’s decision in R. v. Jordan” (Hryniak v. Mauldin, [2014] 1 S.C.R. 87; R. v. Jordan, [2016] 1 S.C.R. 631).
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June 10, 2025
Canada’s top judge declares ‘in this country, the rule of law is non-negotiable’
Lawyers, as officers of the court, have a professional “responsibility and obligation” to defend the rule of law and the independence of the bar and judiciary against attacks, Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner said at his annual news conference in Ottawa.
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June 10, 2025
N.L. construction companies getting help with employee health, safety, recruitment
Newfoundland and Labrador is launching a new digital project aimed at providing more effective health and safety training to small construction companies in the province.
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June 09, 2025
From courtrooms to clicks: Making the move
Last summer, over pasta and pizza at an Italian spot in midtown Toronto, I told my team, “We need to discuss a few imminent changes at the office, because what we are witnessing in the world right now requires adaptation — or the alternative will be our demise.”
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June 06, 2025
Lazarus effect and other elephants in the room
Lazarus? More about him soon. There are three bizarre events that often seem to hit the news of the weird: exotic animals escaping their abodes and roaming the city’s streets, people returning books that were checked out from libraries for decades and humans certified as dead who are still alive. Let me opine about those living dead people.