In Mazur v. Elias, the Court of Appeal has endorsed the notion of “co-ownership” of automobiles. The case involves the often-seen fact pattern of a car being purchased by one person but licensed and insured in the name of another….
We are happy to report that The Canadian Legal LEXPERT Directory for 2005 lists Steve Cavanagh as a “Leading Practitioner” in “Civil Litigation—Commercial Insurance”, one of only five lawyers in eastern Ontario to be so recognized. Congratulations also to the…
In finding that an insurer has a duty to defend a sexual abuse claim, a Superior Court judge took the unusual extra step of allocating defence costs: 20% payable by the insurer and the 80% by the insured. The case…
It is not uncommon these days to see parties, usually defendants, ask for a “bifurcated trial”. In most cases, this means that liability would be tried first and then damages would be assessed at a later date, in a second…
Regular readers of our Updates know that just when insurance defence lawyers and their clients were beginning to despair of ever winning a threshold motion, a series of decisions were handed down that favoured the defence. But a Superior Court…
By now, you have probably heard of last week’s decision of the B.C. Supreme Court in Laface v. McWilliams et al. This was a case in which a drunk driver drove into a group of pedestrians, causing some serious injuries….
Many people who deal with personal injury damages claims (including lawyers and judges) don’t know (or don’t know that they don’t know) how to calculate prejudgment interest. This edition of the CW Update will summarize the applicable rules. The Courts…
A just-released Superior Court decision reminds us that defendants are not automatically entitled to have a personal injury plaintiff examined by multiple medical practitioners, from various disciplines. They must establish, through evidence, why such examinations are needed.
In the space of a week, two appellate decisions have dealt with relief from forfeiture. First, the Supreme Court of Canada issued its ruling in Marche v. Halifax Insurance (about which we sent an Update last week). Today, the Court…
The Ontario Superior Court has ruled that TD General Insurance Company owes a duty to defend a liability claim arising out of a snowmobile accident, despite the company’s contention that it did not insure the owner of the snowmobile.