In Fiddler v. Chiavetti, the Court of Appeal has held that the current maximum award for the loss of care, guidance and companionship under s. 61 of the Family Law Act, is $125,000. That amount represents the $100,000 award approved…
The ruling of Mr. Justice Peter Lauwers in Trypis v. Lavigne is helpful for trial lawyers because it deals with aspects of counsels’ jury addresses that Justice Lauwers held to be improper. This was a slip and fall case. At…
Today’s decision of the Court of Appeal in Laudon v. Roberts was bad news for two of the three parties (the plaintiff and one defendant) but very good news for the other defendant. The action arose out of a boating…
The Ontario legislature has chosen to confer upon judges (alone) the right to decide whether or not a plaintiff in an MVA action meets the statutory “threshold”, making him or her eligible to receive an award of non-pecuniary general damages….
In Kayhan v. Greve, the Divisional Court (Cunningham A.C.J., Stayshyn and Kiteley JJ.) considered whether the fact that the plaintiff in a personal injury action was a Muslim woman of Afghani descent was a sufficient basis to warrant striking the…
Sandhu v. Wellington Place Apartments was one of the largest personal injury damages awards in Canadian history. The Court of Appeal recently dismissed an appeal from the trial decision (other than disallowing most of a $350,000 costs premium). The award…
In Abdallah v. Snopek, the Divisional Court, by a margin of 2-1, ordered a new trial of a personal injury action arising out of a motor vehicle accident. The decision opened with the often-quoted words, “[a] jury trial is…
In Legroulx v. Pitre, Mr. Justice Denis Power had to consider whether Rule 47.07 of the Rules of Civil Procedure, which permits a court to strike a jury notice on the ground that the action ought to be tried without…
Charge of Sproat J.pdf [UPDATE: Mr. Justice Sproat’s charge to the jury on the issue of causation has been added to this post in the link immediately above. Thanks to David Cheifetz, who received a copy of the charge from plaintiff’s…
The 2007 edition of the Montebello Civil Litigation Conference has ended. Our Heather Williams is the conference co-chair and Susanne Sviergula is on the organizing committee. The conference featured numerous visiting guests, each of whom lavished praise on the conference…