Blog Posts

Master Baker confirms that lawyers should agree on both “any facts or assumptions of fact agreed to by the parties” and “any assumptions of facts” that the party wishes the expert to consider” before the expert is appointed. In Parton v. Parton, the parties had entered a consent order appointing a joint expert in business […]

While reading the news last week, I came upon a CBC article of a woman suing her employer for being refused paid maternity leave for her pet (from CBC.ca). I highly doubt that she’ll get anything other than awareness to animal law from her claim. However, it does make you question whether family pets are […]

In family law, claims of adultery are generally irrelevant to any issue other than whether there has been a breakdown of the relationship. Adulterers continue to have all of the rights and obligations found in the Family Law Act. On July 20, 2015, CBC reported that Ashley Madison, the popular infidelity website which encourages married […]

In a March 2015 decision about the division of family property, Walburger v. Lindsay, Madam Justice Fitzpatrick applies the significantly unfair test to the division of a home in Parksville on Vancouver Island. Under the Family Law Act, property is divided into family property and excluded property. Family property is divided equally unless the husband […]

CNN reported today that a woman somewhere in New York may serve her husband divorce papers via Facebook. A link to that story may be found here. In Canada, service via social networking sites is not a new concept and has been ordered on a number of occasions. For example, most recently in Eastview Properties […]

Your estate includes everything you own: tangible, intangible, real, personal and even digital. Often, when estate planning, people forget about the intangible and digital. Examples of digital property you might own includes domain registrations, online or digital bank accounts and financial accounts, file-sharing accounts, social networking accounts, digital pictures, videos, music, books and email accounts. […]

Kim Tenhunen is a partial paraplegic who has been in a wheelchair since she fell off a horse when she was a teenager. She lives in a home located in Sooke, BC. On May 11, 2011, while her mother Beverly Tenhunen was visiting Kim’s home, Beverly slipped and fell on the ramp entry. During her […]

Clarissa Szakacs, a 46 year old mother of a 6 year old child, met her child’s father online and became pregnant during their first meeting in person. She and the child’s father, Donovan Clarke, never cohabited. Since her child’s birth, Ms. Szakacs has worked vehemently to keep Mr. Clarke from his daughter. In reasons reported […]

Carson Dean, a 14 year old student at Wellington Secondary School in Nanaimo thought it would be a fun prank to attach his friend’s padlock to the sprinkler head in his school. Upon jumping for several minutes, Carson managed to attach the lock causing the sprinklers in the entire school to become activated. Carson’s actions […]

In British Columbia, a common law relationship is what the courts call it once two people have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for more than 2 years.

The Vancouver Police Department Motorcycle Drill Team has performed for British Columbians since 1954. Seeing their bikes in parades, escorting black limousines or even parked in Kerrisdale evoke special feelings for many that go back to childhood. The youthful among us would even consider parking their bike alongside these well-known and well-loved Harley-Davidson Road King […]

Vancouver personal injury lawyers read ICBC’s 2013 list of the top ten Lower Mainland car crash intersections with mixed feelings. As the following Supreme Court of Canada excerpt sets out, likelihood of harm is one measure of reasonable conduct when driving a motor vehicle. In other words, the greater the likelihood of harm, the more […]

The death of a parent or spouse is painful; finding out you have been disinherited can be traumatic. Across Canada, sons, daughters and spouses are left out of wills for causes that may seem more appropriate to soap operas than the real world. Sometimes, it is just poor estate planning. In most provinces and states, […]

Washington State Troopers are cracking down on Left Lane Bandits, slower-moving vehicles that camp out in the left-hand lane. These fast lane hoarders reduce the efficiency of highways and increase the frustration of their fellow drivers. Worst of all, they put themselves and others at greater risk of collisions. The left lane is the passing […]

Last year, the Associated Press released a three-part series on which jobs are being lost to new technology. Their research found that nearly all of the disappearing jobs are not low-paid, low-skilled positions, but rather reasonably-paid, traditionally middle-class professions including lawyers, loan officer and more. While jobless recovery and new technological advancements pose a more immediate […]

BC family lawyers and parents are recently reminded that there is no presumption of equality in parenting time. In BCB v. RWB 2014 BCSC 622 released yesterday, Master Baker reminds us that the best interests of the child is the most important consideration in determining parenting time. Further, he states that which parent is ostensibly […]

British Columbia wills variation lawyers have pause to remember one of the great warriors of the past. One of the seminal decisions for the unique British Columbia statutory provision giving the court authority to change a will is the now 83-year-old Supreme Court of Canada Contested Will Claim Walker v. McDermott [1931] SCR 94. This […]

Can my teenager make a will and can I wills variation it? Section 36 of the new Wills, Estates and Succession Act (WESA) says that a person who is 16 years old and mentally capable of doing so can make a will. A 16 year old making a valid will is new in British Columbia […]

Recently in Easingwood v. CRockroft, 2013 BCCA 182, the honourable Madam Justice Saunders of the British Columbia Court of Appeal considered the legalities arising when an attorney under a power of attorney creates an alter ego trust on behalf of a principal. For a better understanding of alter ego trusts, please click here. The case […]

An alter ego trust may be used to avoid wills variation claims. When someone dies, everything that was in their legal name at the time of death is presumed to form part of the deceased’s estate. It is the deceased’s estate that then passes to beneficiaries. Who the beneficiaries are is usually determined by the […]