Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution Blog

In a relatively recent decision, Pita Royale Inc. (Aroma taste of the Middle East) v Buckingham Properties Inc., 2019 ONCA 439, the Ontario Court of Appeal confirmed yet again that once a commercial landlord makes an ‘election’ to terminate a lease due to a specific default of a tenant, the landlord is not permitted to distrain or seize the tenant’s goods on the premises ...

The first Supreme Court of Canada interpretation of the Journalistic Sources Protection Act

A former member of government charged with corruption offences. A CBC journalist investigating. Her sources allegedly came from within a government anti-corruption unit. These facts culminated in the first Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) decision interpreting new ...

Suppose a contractor or subcontractor is involved in a major renovation or expansion project such as work on a hospital, academic institution, or a large industrial or retail facility.  Due to unfortunate circumstances while construction is underway and ongoing, through a fire, a water leak or other catastrophic event, damage to the newly renovated property occurs as well ...

Litigation is expensive, time consuming, stressful, and a distraction from your business. It should be avoided, if at all possible. If it is not possible to avoid litigation – you have been sued or absolutely need to sue – you should try to resolve the litigation as quickly as possible. The longer litigation goes on – and it can go on for a very long time – the more ...

If a plaintiff located in Canada serves documents outside Canada but fails to first obtain an order for service ex juris, can the Court retroactively validate service?  

The circumstances are important. Consider a situation where:

1. both parties have an agreement that the dispute to which the documents in question relate is to be heard in Canada (in Alberta) and governed by ...

A recent Supreme Court of Canada case highlights the importance of procedural and substantive decisions where restitutionary damages are to be calculated on an aggregate basis. These issues are particularly acute in cases that seek to recover damages from a large scale fraud.

In Christine DeJong Medicine Professional Corp v. DBDC Spadina Ltd., 2019 SCC 30 ...

Section 43 of the Alberta Arbitration Act is a statutory exception to functus officio

Historically, the doctrine of functus officio applied to hold that a decision maker could not reopen a hearing or amend an award that was final. This doctrine has, however, been relaxed over time in the judicial, administrative, and arbitration contexts. There are now a number of common law ...

Negative reviews posted on websites such as Better Business Bureau, Yelp, Glassdoor, and Facebook can be devastating to companies, and perhaps even fatal to small businesses and sole practitioners who rely on goodwill and word of mouth recommendations. Although the ill effects of a single negative review may be mitigated in cases where it is outweighed by positive ...

Publication (communication of defamatory material to someone other than the plaintiff) is an essential element in a defamation claim. In the recent decision in Malak v Hanna, 2019 BCCA 106 (“Malak”) the British Columbia Court of Appeal confirmed that merely sending a hyperlink to defamatory material does not constitute publication.  

In Malak, the plaintiff and his ...

On April 25, 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal issued its decision in a longstanding patent dispute in the oil patch regarding hydraulic fracturing technology: Packers Plus Energy Services Inc. and Rapid Completions LLC v. Essential Energy Services Ltd. et al, 2019 FCA 96. In support of its patent, Packers had issued a series of infringement suits against several players in ...