Proper Lawyer Behaviour on Discovery, in the Age of Rob Ford

Examinations for discovery can afford an excellent opportunity to determine the strength of the opposing party’s position. The discovery process also provides a chance to see a lawyer’s oral advocacy skills in action. But sometimes, a lawyer’s behaviour has the effect of disrupting the discovery process. In Tondera v. Vukadinovic, 2013 ONSC 6888 (CANLii), defence counsel…

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Post Security or Go Home

You don’t often hear about a motion for security for costs in estate litigation (if nothing else the parties are usually very much present in the jurisdiction and have some financial worth).  However, estate litigants have been ordered to post security for costs just as in any other civil litigation.  Equally, estate litigants have successfully…

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The Reward For Civility: No Costs Against You

Justice DiTomaso recently released an interesting costs decision following his reasons in the case of Stevens v. Fisher Estate (blogged on earlier this year by Jasmine Sweatman on All About Estates). Due to the good conduct of the parties, the Court ordered each side to bear its own costs. By way of quick recap of…

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The Doctrine of Abuse of Process

The Supreme Court of Canada had this to say about abuse of process: The doctrine of abuse of process engages the inherent power of the court to prevent the misuse of its procedure in a way that would be manifestly unfair to a party to the litigation before it or would in some other way…

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