-
September 18, 2026
People often put off preparing their wills for many reasons. What often brings about a mindset shift is the birth of a child. Suddenly, parents start asking questions they may not have considered before: What happens if I die? Who will take care of my child if my child is still a minor? Who will make important decisions for them?
-
September 18, 2026
Appeal by the appellant from a decision dismissing her appeal from an order terminating her tenancy and evicting her from the unit. The appeal involved the interpretation of the statutory provisions and procedures under ss. 48 and 71.1 of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).
-
September 16, 2026
A behind-the-scenes bid by federal chief justices to make future recommendations from the federal independent judicial pay commission process binding on Ottawa is on hold as representatives of Canada’s 1,200 federal judges and Federal Court associate judges sue the Carney government for allegedly not giving “meaningful effect” to the work and non-binding advice of the latest quadrennial Judicial Compensation and Benefits Commission (Giardini Commission.)
-
September 16, 2026
When a deceased’s assets are concentrated in a private corporation, the estate trustee often feels pressured to become a director of the company. Is there a conflict? Is it a prudent course for a professional estate trustee?
-
September 11, 2026
Nicholas Burke has joined McInnes Cooper as a partner in its Sydney, N.S., office.
-
September 10, 2026
Artificial intelligence is now part of almost every conversation about court efficiency. Those conversations are worthwhile and should continue, and I have no doubt that there is an appropriate place for AI in court operations nationwide. But while that work goes on, it is worth asking what else could make our courts run better using what we already have.
-
September 09, 2026
MLT Aikins has welcomed Terence Arthur and Grayson Bateyko to the firm’s Edmonton office as counsel.
-
September 09, 2026
Undue influence is a legal principle that addresses circumstances where someone coerces another to make a decision. A finding of undue influence allows the court to invalidate transfers of property, the execution of wills, or powers of attorney, on the basis that they were not the product of the executor, transferor, or grantor’s free will.
-
September 09, 2026
Appeal by Woodard from chambers orders arising from his petition concerning administration of deceased’s estate. The deceased’s will gifted his interest in a property located on Okanagan Lake equally to Woodard and Hewitt, the executor and the deceased’s common-law spouse, with the residue passing to Hewitt.
-
September 08, 2026
Ottawa has agreed that the federal judiciary reasonably incurred more than $1 million in legal fees and disbursements to participate in the independent quadrennial process that is meant to depoliticize determinations of federal judicial remuneration and avoid pay disputes.
-
September 03, 2026
Upcoming conferences listed by Saskatchewan’s law society will include a look into the emotional challenges in estate disputes, French terminology in family law contracts, and the current state of AI in the legal profession.
-
September 02, 2026
An estate freeze puts tax liabilities on ice, but heated family dynamics can melt away the tax benefits of the freeze.
-
August 31, 2026
Linda Chen has joined Lindsay Kenney LLP in its Vancouver office, practising with the firm’s estate planning and business law groups.
-
August 28, 2026
Ontario’s Appeal Court has ruled that the son of a deceased woman must pay his siblings for a “shortfall” after he inherited a cottage worth more than what the rest of the estate left behind.
-
August 28, 2026
Appeal by appellant from orders denying her standing to challenge the committee accounts of the estate of Popove, summarily passing those accounts, and awarding special costs against her.
-
August 27, 2026
After the death of the testator, it is sometimes the case that a party asserts that the testator’s will contains a mistake that does not reflect the testamentary intentions of the deceased. In Ontario, in certain limited circumstances, the court can “fix” the will by employing the legal doctrine of rectification.
-
August 27, 2026
As AI-generated court filings by self-represented litigants proliferate, appellate counsel should read trial transcripts that are ostensibly “certified” more closely than ever and do so earlier in the appeal process as they might be AI-created fakes, advises a senior family law practitioner.
-
August 24, 2026
A $28,000 lump sum salary boost recommended for Canada’s 1,200 judges last year would have cost Ottawa almost $321 million over six years had the government not rejected the advice from an independent judicial pay commission, the Carney government asserts in defending a novel lawsuit launched by the Canadian Superior Courts Judges Association (CSCJA) and the Association of Federal Court Associate Judges.
-
August 21, 2026
WeirFoulds LLP has welcomed Andreea Muth as a partner in its wills, trusts and estates practice group.
-
August 19, 2026
The growing burdens that generative AI misuse in court is imposing on lawyers, litigants and courts are illustrated by a recent Nova Scotia Court of Appeal judgment that threw out a self-represented litigant’s appeal following his use of uncertified AI-generated trial transcripts containing multiple inaccuracies that opposing counsel identified through vigilant verification.
-
August 18, 2026
Quebec’s top court has ordered a self-represented family law appellant to pay $1,000 to his ex-wife plus her legal costs on the appeal, following his “deliberate” citation in court of ChatGPT-generated fake case law, including fictitious quotations.
-
August 13, 2026
In Ontario family law, the date on which a spouse receives a gift or inheritance from a third party (usually a parent or relative), whether before or after the date of marriage, may have a significant impact on their net family property and ultimately the size of the equalization payment owed to the other spouse on marital separation.
-
August 12, 2026
Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Geneviève Cotnam, who once recalled “my career as a lawyer didn’t always provide a smooth sailing to the bench,” is Quebec's new top judge, succeeding Quebec Court of Appeal Chief Justice Manon Savard who became a part-time (supernumerary) judge on Aug. 10.
-
August 12, 2026
Estate trustees and beneficiaries can often be faced with estate disputes that include complex commercial issues. A litigation lawyer may be needed to assist clients through these thorny and complex issues. For example, what happens when a prudent estate freeze triggers an intense family fallout, resulting in oppression remedies, wrongful dismissal claims, or derivative actions? How should an executor manage the multifaceted responsibilities of serving as an officer or director of the deceased’s business, especially when facing allegations of mismanagement or delaying a sale, while also drawing compensation?
-
August 06, 2026
A complex and challenging area of law is the intersection of trust law and family law. Ontario law, in contrast to many other common law jurisdictions, has given liberal treatment of a discretionary interest in a trust as property, which can be subject to equalization under our family law legislation. See our prior articles on this subject: Property division and discretionary trusts: Half of nothing is still nothing; and Heads Up: Grappling with Family Law’s Treatment of Discretionary Trust Interests.