An elderly woman suffers from dementia. Her two children are both her attorneys for property and personal care. Both have diametrically opposed plans for where she would live. In Walter Burnat v Mary Bosworth et al, 2016 ONSC 2607 (S.C.J.) the court had to decide whether the mother – Olga – would continue to live…
Canadians can rejoice at turning 65 – you are now eligible for the government benefits offered to seniors. In order to spend more time eating cake and less time searching for the benefits that apply to you, provincial and federal benefits are listed in one convenient website. The list briefly summarizes the different benefits available,…
When the end is near, decisions regarding food are up to the substitute decision maker In a recent article for the New York Times, Theresa Brown, a hospice nurse and author, described the story of an Italian grandmother who was caring for her dying husband. Her husband was long past the point of being able…
Could Canadians one day be able to make a power of attorney that authorizes their death? In a Charter decision that may already rank among its most significant, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously struck down the criminal offences that prohibit aiding or abetting a person to commit suicide this past month. The ruling, in…
Two things got me thinking about power of attorney litigation. I listened to a great program on CBC on Sunday, where the guests – an estate litigator in Toronto and an elder law specialist from the west – talked about the trend that many estate litigators have seen lately. That is, would-be heirs no longer…
A new study reported on this week found that daughters are significantly more helpful than sons when it comes to taking care of their elderly parents. Referencing data found from surveying 26,000 Americans, it seems that daughters spend on average 12.3 hours a month looking after an elderly parent versus sons who spend on average 5.6 hours…
May an attorney for property mix his own funds with that of the incapable person? The short answer is: never. But the consequences for a well-meaning but ill-advised client might not be as dire as we litigators sometimes would expect. In the recent case of Villa v. Villa 2013 ONSC 2202, two brothers, Renzo and Enzo Villa, clashed…