Commercial Litigation Insights: A Fair Shake: The Court of Appeal’s Treatment of Sophisticated Parties’ Bargains
The Court of Appeal’s decision in 660 Sunningdale GP Inc. v First Source Mortgage Corporation, 2024 ONCA 252 [Sunningdale] reaffirms that in general, sophisticated commercial parties to a contract will […]
Commercial Litigation Insights: Preserving Efficiency and Finality: Court of Appeal Clarifies Scope of “Fraud” in Arbitration
Arbitration offers contracting parties a typically faster and more cost-effective dispute resolution alternative to traditional court proceedings. While the Arbitration Act, 1991, SO 1991, c 17 limits court interference in […]
Commercial Litigation Insights: Difficult, but not Impossible: Court Orders Non-Party Production from a Lawyer in Sheeraz v Seathi et al.
Rule 30.10 is a very powerful evidence-gathering tool. It empowers the Court to order a non-party to produce documents in their possession, power, or control that are relevant to ongoing […]
Commercial Litigation Insights: Landmark Victory for Underpaid Newcomers – Citizenship and Discrimination: L.N. v Ray Daniel Salon & Spa
The landmark decision of L.N. v. Ray Daniel Salon & Spa[1] was heard on October 26, 2023, before the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”). The application brought forward serious […]
Commercial Litigation Insights:Moffatt v Air Canada: Bot Betrayal and Negligent Misrepresentation
For the most part, waiting to speak to a human customer service representative has become a thing of the past. With the advent of artificial intelligence (“AI”), companies have been […]
Commercial Litigation Insights: Costs in Anti-SLAPP Applications: How much is too much?
Litigants involved in defamation proceedings will be familiar with anti-SLAPP[1] applications, a remedy available in Ontario to defendants under s. 137.1 of the Courts of Justice Act (CJA)[2] which can […]
Commercial Litigation Insights: Securities Enforcement? But They’re Crypto Tokens, Not Shares…
Canadian and American regulators have made concerted efforts in the last year to definitively demonstrate that cryptocurrencies are under their securities purview and to accelerate aggressive enforcement proceedings. Yet, the […]
Suing the Crown in Ontario: Special Rules Apply
Any party planning to sue the provincial Crown in Ontario should carefully review the Crown Liability and Proceedings Act, 2019, S.O. 2019, c. 7, Sched. 17 (“CLPA”). The Court of […]
Court of Appeal Clarifies Scope of the Tort of Intrusion Upon Seclusion in Cases of Data Breaches
On November 25, 2022, the Ontario Court of Appeal released a trilogy of decisions (Owsianik v Equifax Canada Co., 2022 ONCA 813, Obodo v TransUnion of Canada, Inc., 2022 ONCA 814, and Winder […]
Supreme Court of Canada: Arbitration agreements may be inoperative where ‘chaotic arbitral processes’ would compromise resolution of a receivership
The Supreme Court of Canada’s (“SCC“) recent decision in Peace River Hydro Partners v Petrowest Corp., 2022 SCC 41 (“Peace River“), clarified whether, and in what circumstances, a contractual agreement to arbitrate should […]
Ontario Court of Appeal Doubles Down on Entire Agreement Clauses Not Precluding Misrepresentation Allegations
In 10443204 Canada Inc v 2701835 Ontario Inc, 2022 ONCA 745, the Ontario Court of Appeal (the “Court”) overturned a summary judgment decision where the motions judge elected to enforce […]
Interpreting Efforts Clauses in a Commercial Contract
Canadian courts have gone to great lengths to assign distinct, differing meanings to efforts clauses. The terms “best efforts”, “commercially reasonable efforts”, and “commercially reasonable best efforts” (together, “efforts clauses”) […]
Open Access: The Federal Court’s Pilot Project for Online Access to Court Records
On September 12, 2022, the Federal Court introduced Phase One of its pilot project to provide the public and litigants with online electronic access to Court records.[1] The Courts are […]
Leave May Not Always Be Required to Appeal an Arbitral Costs Award
Parties to commercial transactions often choose arbitration over litigation. While litigation offers a more structured process, arbitration provides both parties with a tailored, more private, faster and often less expensive […]
Ontario Court of Appeal Addresses Use of Fresh Evidence in Obtaining a Declaration that Judgment Debt Survives Bankruptcy
In a recent decision, the Ontario Court of Appeal approved the use of “fresh” evidence in obtaining a declaration that a judgment debt for statutory breach of trust survives bankruptcy. […]