Most civil cases run on documents. Bank records, text messages, emails, invoices, logs of who accessed what and when. When something important is missing, the explanation is usually ordinary. A file was misplaced. A phone was replaced. A company purged old records on the schedule it has always followed. Occasionally the explanation is not ordinary...Read More
It is the most common instruction a family lawyer hears. Just ask the kids. They know who they want to live with. Ontario courts do listen to children. But a child’s wishes are one input, not the decision. The gap between those two things is where most parents get caught out. How A Child’s Voice...Read More
A will gets read after the only person who can explain it is gone. Sometimes what sits on the page is plainly not what the family understood was intended. Ontario courts can correct a will in that situation. The power is narrower than most people expect, and it turns on a question that has nothing...Read More
Two weeks ago Ontario changed how bail money works. On the last day of August, a court suspended the change. If you or someone in your family is facing a bail hearing right now, here is where things actually stand. What The New Rules Did For as long as most people have dealt with the...Read More
The mortgage is in default. The hydro is going to be cut off next week. Your first court date is in the fall, and it is May. Ontario family court has a rule that catches most people off guard the first time they meet it. You generally cannot bring a motion until a case conference...Read More
A frequent source of confusion in family litigation is the status of an order made early in the case. A party receives a support ruling months before any trial and assumes the question is settled. Often it is not. Many early support orders are interim and made on a without-prejudice basis — and understanding what...Read More
Interim support and financial motions frequently turn on an expert valuation — an income or business valuation report — tendered before the formal expert machinery is complete. The recurring evidentiary question is whether the court can rely on such a report where there is no affidavit from the expert swearing to its contents and no...Read More
You leave part of your estate to a charity that matters to you. You name it in your will, sign, and move on. But a will can sit unchanged for years. What happens if, by the time it takes effect, the charity you named has closed, merged, or changed its name? The short answer: your...Read More
A distinct issue within imputation law is the payor who earned one income before separation and a lower one after. The change may be genuine or it may be convenient. Ontario law does not let the payor resolve that ambiguity in their own favour by default. It requires them to justify the drop. The Standard...Read More
When a marriage ends, one spouse often owes the other money at the end of the process — an equalization payment to balance out property, ongoing or retroactive support, or both. But the final numbers can take months or years to settle. That creates a real risk: by the time the court decides what is...Read More
