James C Morton
Disposition costs in valuing family assets
Willie v. Willie, 2013 BCCA 318 deals with the often confusing issue of when disposition costs ought to be considered in valuing family assets. The British Columbia court said in…
Bias based on race
R. v. Gray, 2013 ABCA 237 holds: However deplorable bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin may be, it is not a crime for an individual…
Students may reasonably rely on academic calendars
Ramdath v. George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology, 2013 ONCA 468 holds that students may reasonably rely on representations in an academic calendar. Such is significant because often…
Happy Nunavut Day! Iqaluit comes to Google Street View
From Google’s official blog: Nunavut, in the Inuktitut language, means “our land”. When Google Maps teamed up with the nonprofit Nunavut Tunngavik Inc to improve the maps of Canada’s Arctic,…
A Court must allow submissions to be made on material issues
R. v. Cook, 2013 ONCA 467 is a good source for the principle that where a material issue is before the Court there must be opportunity given to address that…
Happy Nunavut Day
Nunavut Day, which is annually celebrated on July 9, commemorates passing of two Nunavut acts. The Canadian Parliament passed the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act and the Nunavut Act on…
Orders for specific medical treatment of federal prisoners proper in limited circumstances
R. v. Taylor, 2013 NLCA 42 holds that, in very narrow circumstances, a Superior Court judge may make an order for specific medical treatment of a prisoner serving a term…
Justices of the Peace have authority to try summary conviction matters
As many have asked where this comes from here it is: R. v. Montgomery, 2010 ONCA 243: The charges were prosecuted as summary conviction offences and their trial was conducted…
Smuggling drugs into jail an especially heinous form of trafficking
R v Gargas, 2013 ABCA 245 involved in a scheme to smuggle drugs into the Edmonton Remand Centre. An envelope containing 1 gram of morphine, 3 grams of alprazolam, and…
From Today’s Toronto Star: A Modest Proposal for Speedier Justice
What do you tell victims of crime when they find out that because of delays in the justice system they will not get their day in court? What do you…
"Be yourself; everyone else is taken": probably not Oscar Wilde
This is a nice line and commonly attributed to Oscar Wilde. But… it does not appear in any of his published work and seems different from his more commonly expressed…
Can a law firm accept a retainer to act against a current client on a matter unrelated to the client’s existing files? More specifically, can a firm bring a lawsuit against a current client on behalf of another client? If not, what remedies are available
Canadian National Railway Co. v. McKercher LLP, 2013 SCC 39 was released this morning. It is an extremely important decision dealing with when a law firm is unable to act,…