Civil Litigation

  • September 25, 2026

    Supreme Court’s Côté J. an impactful ‘out of the box’ thinker: law professor

    Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté has significantly impacted the top court’s jurisprudence and culture since her appointment almost 12 years ago, says University of Alberta constitutional law professor Gerard Kennedy.

  • September 25, 2026

    Exclusive: Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté mulls her post-bench future

    Supreme Court of Canada Justice Suzanne Côté is thinking about what life after the bench might look like, she tells Law360 Canada. The court’s impactful and most prolific judge, who turned 68 this week with no apparent loss of drive or energy, says she is healthy and still loves the work that has earned her a reputation as a trailblazer and original thinker.

  • September 25, 2026

    Decision to cancel university lecture flawed because of failure to consider Charter: Alberta judge

    An Alberta judge has ruled the University of Lethbridge was wrong to cancel a speech by a controversial academic, saying the school did not properly consider freedom of expression issues before making its move.

  • September 25, 2026

    Two distinct tests in Start-Up Visa applications and the cost of conflating them

    In Punjwani v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2026 FC 1033, the Federal Court addressed a recurring analytical error in Start-Up Visa cases: treating the qualifying-business requirements in s. 98.06 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, SOR/2002-227 (IRPR), as though they answered an artificial-transaction finding under paragraph 89(b). They do not. The provisions impose different requirements, and an argument directed to one may fail to address a refusal under the other.

  • September 25, 2026

    New litigator joins Langlois in Montreal

    Langlois has announced that Samuel Lavoie has joined the firm’s litigation group.  

  • September 25, 2026

    David Postel new partner at WEL Partners

    David Postel has joined WEL Partners as a partner, where he acts for clients on the estates, civil, and commercial lists throughout Ontario in trusts, estates and related matters. According to a statement from the firm, Postel’s practice also deals with family wealth disputes over control of closely held businesses.

  • September 25, 2026

    90/10 means 90/10: How the Ontario Court of Appeal unravelled the Stacey v. Vey award

    Shelley-Anne Stacey and William Vey lived together for three and a half years. They never married and had no children. The Appeal Court determined that the uncontroverted evidence was that there was a brief relationship that was not stable, with no children or common family obligations. Stacey moved into Vey’s Richmond Hill, Ont., home in July 2015. Two years later, Vey sold the home and the couple moved into a new home in Alliston, 90 kilometres north of Toronto.

  • September 24, 2026

    Court limits record to documents before board in Vancouver port fee challenge

    The Federal Court of Appeal has upheld a ruling that the Vancouver Fraser Port Authority is not required to provide terminal operators challenging an infrastructure fee with documents used to develop it because they were not before the board that approved the fee.

  • September 24, 2026

    On appeal, tax courts look for material errors, not just procedural fairness: Lessons from Siam v. Canada

    Part one of this series examined how the Federal Court of Appeal in Siam v. Canada, 2026 FCA 91 applied the Mpamugo v. The Queen, 2016 TCC 215 framework to a taxpayer’s claim that the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) never sent his original Notice of Assessment.

  • September 24, 2026

    Pink Larkin adds Halifax associates for litigation, labour

    Meili Toner and Antonia Chircop have joined Pink Larkin as associates in its Halifax office.

  • September 24, 2026

    Matt McLeod joins Blake, Cassels & Graydon

    Toronto-based lawyer Matt McLeod has joined Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP as a partner in the firm’s defence group.

  • September 24, 2026

    An estate lawyer’s guide to the estate litigation galaxy

    As estate planning lawyers, we constantly orbit the estate litigation galaxy, navigating to keep our clients’ estates from being pulled into the black hole of court. This article is a guide for both estate planning lawyers and their clients to stay in “safe orbit” and navigate smartly around some of the most common estate litigation in the galaxy, with a nod to the late 1970s comedy science-fiction series A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

  • September 24, 2026

    ASSESSMENT OF DAMAGES - Measure of damages - Deductions - Limiting factors - Pre-existing conditions

    Appeal by appellant from a damages award following a motor vehicle accident. The respondent admitted liability for a rear-end motor vehicle accident.

  • September 23, 2026

    Canadian justice system attracts EU interest amid rule of law threats abroad: top judge

    Chief Justice of Canada Richard Wagner says Canada’s independent justice system and perspective on confronting global threats to the rule of law has attracted interest abroad. Speaking Sept. 22 at a Newfoundland and Labrador law society event in St. John’s, Chief Justice Wagner told local lawyers and those online that he was the only non-European court leader invited to attend the meeting in Cyprus last June of the Network of the Presidents of the Supreme Judicial Courts of the 27-member European Union (EU).

  • September 23, 2026

    Burden initially on taxpayer to prove CRA never sent Notice of Assessment: Lessons from Siam v. Canada

    This is part one of a two-part series examining Siam v. Canada, 2026 FCA 91, in which the Federal Court of Appeal addressed a recurring evidentiary problem in tax reassessment litigation: what a taxpayer must actually prove when arguing that the Canada Revenue Agency never sent an original Notice of Assessment.

  • September 23, 2026

    Six AI checks before filing in Quebec

    Quebec’s new judicial guidelines offer an occasion to examine how AI assistance enters a litigation file, without confusing judicial guidance with lawyers’ duties.

  • September 23, 2026

    Why commercial arbitral awards are so difficult to appeal

    Ontario’s Arbitration Act represents one of many efforts by the state to delegate the adjudicative function to non-judicial decision-makers.

  • September 23, 2026

    Opt-in process introduced for minor hockey abuse claims

    The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has created an opt-in process for legal claims for people who suffered hazing or abuse while playing Major Junior Hockey in the Ontario Hockey League and/or the Western Hockey League of the Canadian Hockey League.

  • September 23, 2026

    Federal Court lets challenge to Ottawa climate plan proceed

    A Canadian court will once again be at the centre of a lawsuit challenging alleged governmental inaction on climate change, with a judge turning back attempts by Ottawa to quash a lawsuit challenging its record on greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).

  • September 23, 2026

    The meaning of ‘effective’: Canada’s new AML compliance-program standard

    Since March 26, 2026, every reporting entity under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act must under the new s. 9.6(1.1) “ensure that the program is reasonably designed, risk-based and effective.” Its schedule entry is a very serious violation with a $20 million per violation ceiling for an entity ($4 million for a person). Little has been written about what s. 9.6(1.1) actually adds: an express program-level performance standard.

  • September 23, 2026

    Not signatory to arbitration clause? No problem: Arbitrator’s jurisdiction confirmed in dispute

    In 1171757 Ontario Limited et al. v. 1171758 Ontario Limited et al., 2026 ONSC 4414, the Superior Court of Justice applied the rules of contractual interpretation to hold that a shareholder of a corporate partner qualified as a “party” to a partnership agreement, even if he is not a principal under that corporation, or has ceded controlling power to his partner by way of a power of attorney (POA).

  • September 23, 2026

    LIMITATION OF ACTIONS - Legislation - Extension, interruption, suspension and inapplicability - Disability

    Appeal by appellant from dismissal of her action against her former spouse for damages for sexual assault, assault, battery, and intentional infliction of mental suffering.

  • September 22, 2026

    P.E.I. to dismantle IRAC, replace it with ‘specialized bodies’

    Prince Edward Island will move to dismantle a 35-year-old quasi-judicial tribunal and replace it with two new decision-making bodies that will continue to deal with various appeals and disputes.

  • September 22, 2026

    The best-interests analysis in education disputes

    Where a child goes to school is an all-or-nothing decision. Because there is no middle ground, any misalignment between separated parents can easily become a dispute that requires judicial resolution. For the family lawyers who represent these parents, their dispute can carry added importance: the issue often arises on an urgent or interim basis shortly before the beginning of the school year.

  • September 22, 2026

    Manslaughter sentencing appeal focuses on relationship between proportionality, legal causation

    A manslaughter case can turn on a single act for purposes of criminal liability, even if it is not a single-act case for purposes of sentencing.

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