Trust Issues: Employees as Fiduciaries Owning or operating a business or enterprise requires a certain degree of trust. Unless you are a one-person show, chances are if you run a business, your trust will be placed on your employees. Some of these employees will be executives making important business decisions on your behalf; others will...Read More

It is not uncommon for tradespeople, professionals and businesses alike to encounter customers who refuse or neglect to pay their bills. Although a lawsuit is always an option in these scenarios, many simply choose to write off the loss as bad debt rather than throw good money after bad, especially when a debtor has relative...Read More

In British Columbia, we have multiple levels of government. In this post, we will be dealing with the municipal, provincial, and federal governments in BC generally. I have drafted City policies, have worked for the City of Richmond and Surrey Bylaw Departments, and the Provincial Translink department, and as such, have a sense of the...Read More

Many of our local and international clients are interested in building their own homes to live in or for investment. In BC, we have the Builders Lien Act . This is a key piece of legislation when building or renovating a residential or commercial property in BC. Too Easy and Too Costly This Act is...Read More

“Neither a borrower nor a lender be…but if you must be a lender, exceed not the rate of interest that is criminal.” Polonius (if he had been a lawyer) There is in Canada a criminal rate of interest – exceed it, even accidentally, and there are consequences. The law is found in s. 347 of...Read More

Once you have made the decision to take someone to court, one of the first decisions to be made is whether it will be in Small Claims Court or in Supreme Court. Sometimes the decision is easy: Small Claims Court limits the money you can be awarded to $25,000, so if someone owes you or...Read More

I was recently at a social function where a carpenter was telling me that the Courts in BC are useless because even if you win, you never get your money from the losing party. Although, I do not think he is correct, it can be true. Before you embark on the potentially lengthy journey of...Read More

Defamation has existed as long as there have been jerks to perpetrate it and a legal system to name it, but in the internet age it is all too easy for critical or derogatory statements to reach an international audience and to be forever accessible by untold numbers of people. That one cruel, fallacious Facebook...Read More

If you have been wronged by someone who, for example, hasn’t repaid a loan, sold you something that wasn’t what they promised, slandered you, et cetera, and you go to lawyer to find out what you can do resolve the situation, one of the first questions the lawyer will ask you is “when did this...Read More

At the end of any lawsuit, comes the time for the Court to settle the bill and award money to one or more of the parties. Basically, costs (as these payments are known) are given to compensate the winners for some of their legal costs and to punish the losers. Where a party has brought...Read More