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August 12, 2025
Yukon has brought into force legislative changes allowing residents to officially designate a power of attorney without having to hire a lawyer.
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August 11, 2025
“This is the fight of our lifetime,” said American Bar Association (ABA) president William Bay while receiving the Ontario Bar Association’s (OBA) President’s Award on behalf of American lawyers on Aug. 7. The award comes as the ABA has launched a lawsuit against the United States federal government for allegedly using its powers to coerce lawyers and law firms to abandon clients, causes and policy positions President Donald Trump opposes.
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August 08, 2025
Chief justices are pointing to newly disclosed data about private bar lawyers’ rising incomes and declining appointments to the bench to bolster the judiciary’s contention that inadequate judicial compensation and onerous job demands are deterring “outstanding” lawyers from seeking federal judicial appointments.
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August 08, 2025
Nova Scotia’s law society is using a new guidebook to warn members against becoming over-reliant on artificial intelligence in their practices — and urging them to heed instances where lawyers ended up in hot water over its misuse.
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August 08, 2025
The Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) has issued a public expression of concern regarding Federal Court Justice Negar Azmudeh for failing to disclose an ongoing workplace harassment investigation during her judicial application process.
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August 05, 2025
A review panel of the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) has issued a public reprimand to Justice Andrew J. Goodman of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for his failure to promptly correct a significant sentencing error, concluding that his 14-month delay in addressing the mistake constituted “injudicious conduct” that undermined public confidence in the administration of justice.
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August 07, 2025
In a decision offering guidance on multiple legal issues, an Ontario Superior Court judge has awarded summary judgment of nearly $291,000 to the estate of a deceased lender in a case involving two unpaid promissory notes, while rejecting attempts to hold a corporate executive personally liable for the debts.
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August 07, 2025
It may sound surprising, but under British Columbia’s Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA), it is indeed possible for someone to have more than one legal “spouse,” at least for the purpose of dividing an estate when there’s no will.
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August 06, 2025
Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog has published its comprehensive supervisory framework and unveiled a more streamlined administrative monetary penalties policy.
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August 05, 2025
The Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that the estate of a deceased federal inmate cannot claim damages for the government’s retrospective removal of early parole, which was found to be a violation of the Charter right not to be punished twice for the same offence.
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August 01, 2025
Meagan MacArthur has joined McKenzie Lake Lawyers as an associate in its wills, estates and trusts group at the London, Ont., office.
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August 01, 2025
For a will to be recognized as valid, the testator must have known and approved of its contents. Typically, knowledge and approval are presumed when a will is submitted for probate, provided it was duly executed.
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July 30, 2025
The Supreme Court of Canada — which drew fire last year for its posting, and then removal, of some 6,000 pre-1970 untranslated (mostly English) judgments from its website — says it has started to translate some of the court’s “most significant” decisions rendered before the 1970 Official Languages Act (OLA) required all new judgments to be issued simultaneously in both official languages.
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July 30, 2025
MLT Aikins has welcomed Christine Dimitrov as an associate lawyer in its Vancouver office, where she has joined the trusts, estates and legacy planning team.
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July 29, 2025
The former Trudeau government’s nine-year push for diversity in federal appointments since 2016 saw big progress for female jurists — who now make up 49 per cent of all federally appointed judges — along with significant gains for jurists who self-identify as Indigenous, racialized, ethnic, 2SLGBTQI+ or as having a disability, according to the latest information from the Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs.
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July 28, 2025
Even though the housing market in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and elsewhere is currently undergoing a downturn due to economic uncertainty, homeownership likely remains out of reach for many. For young Canadians, a home purchase is often supported (at least partially) by the “Bank of Mom and Dad.”
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July 23, 2025
Finance ministers and central bank governors from the world’s 20 largest economies (G20) have concluded their third meeting of the year in Durban, South Africa, by endorsing several initiatives with potential legal and regulatory implications for international finance and taxation.
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July 23, 2025
Sean M. Kelly has joined Clark Wilson’s estates and trusts opinions and appeals group as an associate.
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July 22, 2025
The Ontario Superior Court’s decision in Tessaro v. Gora, 2025 ONSC 198 quietly answered a long-standing question among estate planners: what happens when a decades-old drafting error is unexpectedly discovered? In answering this question, Justice Fred Myers not only clarified the legal consequences of such an error but also reiterated the importance of diligent drafting in estate planning.
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July 21, 2025
The British Columbia Court of Appeal has largely upheld a lower court’s decision to remove an executor from his mother’s estate, rejecting his claim that property transfers to himself and his brother were legitimate distributions rather than improper self-dealing.
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July 18, 2025
Individuals in Ontario may designate beneficiaries for their registered accounts — such as TFSAs, RRSPs, RRIFs and FHSAs (see Part III of the Succession Law Reform Act, RSO 1990, c S.26 (SLRA)). This designation ensures that, upon the account holder’s death, the proceeds are paid directly to the named beneficiary, thereby bypassing the estate. This not only avoids estate administration tax on those funds, but also often allows for a quicker distribution to the designated beneficiaries as well as regarding RRSPs and RIFFs creditor protection.
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July 17, 2025
The Federal Court of Appeal’s senior puisne judge says those applying to intervene at the national intermediate appellate court should ask themselves whether their presence “will advance our work.”
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July 17, 2025
When property is held by more than one person, beneficial ownership takes one of two forms — joint tenancy or tenancy in common. These forms of beneficial ownership also apply when a will leaves a testamentary gift to multiple beneficiaries, regardless of whether the will expressly addresses the intended form of joint ownership. If a will is silent on this point, the form of beneficial ownership will simply be determined through legal presumptions.
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July 16, 2025
These are “interesting times” to be one of the world’s largest law firms. With about 5,900 lawyers across more than 80 countries, Dentons is helping clients navigate some of the worst economic volatility in decades and generational technological change as it carefully works to protect its own flanks from a U.S. administration that’s frequently been hostile to the legal sector. Global CEO Kate Barton said that while several major U.S. law firms have been targeted by President Donald Trump — particularly those perceived as opposing him or representing his adversaries — Dentons has managed to avoid the administration’s scrutiny by maintaining a bipartisan approach.
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July 16, 2025
What lawyer has not heard that legal writing should be clear and concise? Everyone wants legal documents to be straightforward, client-oriented and “crisp.” Yet, cryptic memoranda, wordy submissions, legalese-filled judgments and insurmountable walls of text in contracts and policies remain common. Even with clarity in mind, writing clearly is hard without knowing the rules to guide the process.