Wills, Trusts & Estates
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November 21, 2024
Legislation needed to provide fiduciaries access to digital assets: Law reform report
According to Statistics Canada, more Canadians than ever before are adopting “a smarter and more connected lifestyle,” with Internet use amongst Canadians over the age of 14 in 2022 reaching 95 per cent.
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November 20, 2024
Ontario charitable corporations: Payments to directors, connected persons
Directors of charitable corporations operating in Ontario are subject to strict requirements to act without personal benefit — meaning they cannot be paid for serving as directors or for other services unless authorized by court order or pursuant to Ontario Regulation 4/01 under the Charities Accounting Act (the Regulation).
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November 19, 2024
Public has low confidence in criminal courts; believes politics influences SCC appointments: poll
If public confidence is a litmus test for the health of the justice system, a new national poll suggests Canada’s courts have room to improve.
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November 18, 2024
Why digital legacy planning should now be part of every estate plan
We’ve all seen the Facebook profiles of departed friends that appear on our timelines, floating by like digital zombies. Although social media platforms like Facebook have introduced procedures such as memorialization and legacy contact to manage the accounts of deceased or incapacitated users, many remain in cyber-limbo due to a lack of a proactive digital legacy plan, as any estate planning lawyer will tell you.
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November 15, 2024
AI in the courtroom: Canadian Judicial Council’s new guidelines
With the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Canadian courts are under increasing pressure to address its impact. While some view AI as a possible threat to the rule of law and democracy within Canada’s justice system, AI also holds promise for enhancing court operations, reducing workloads, supporting judicial functions and improving access to justice.
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November 14, 2024
Removal of untranslated English decisions on website won’t end novel lawsuit against SCC: plaintiff
The Supreme Court of Canada’s removal of thousands of pre-1970 (mostly unilingual-English) judgments from its website won’t end an unprecedented Federal Court lawsuit that aims to compel the top court’s registry to fix alleged violations of the Official Languages Act by translating the court’s unilingual decisions into the other official language, says the plaintiff language rights group Droits collectifs Québec.
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November 14, 2024
Limitation applicable to constructive trust and unjust enrichment claims
The decision in Ingram v. Kulynych Estate, 2024 ONCA 678 (Ingram), by the Ontario Court of Appeal addressed whether the 10-year limitation period under s. 4 of the Real Property Limitations Act R.S.O. 1990, c. L.15 (RPLA) applies to the respondent, Kathleen Ingram’s, constructive trust and unjust enrichment claim against Henry Kulynych’s estate rather than the two-year period under s. 38(3) of the Trustee Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. T.23 (Trustee Act).
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November 11, 2024
Estate freezes and resulting litigation issues
In my recent article “Estate freezes: An icebreaker,” I discussed how an estate freeze can be used to “lock in” the value of a family business’ shares at a given point in time and pass on the growth of that business to the business owner’s children. I briefly touched on some of the potential pitfalls that can complicate the execution and maintenance of an estate freeze. One of these complications — and the source of much of the litigation surrounding estate freezes — is the availability of the oppression remedy to the company’s shareholders.
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November 08, 2024
SCC elaborates on framework, scope for judicial review of regs and other subordinate legislation
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled 9-0 that the Vavilov “reasonableness” standard for judicial review — informed by some of the Katz Group principles — presumptively applies when courts review whether subordinate legislation is authorized by law.
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November 08, 2024
Lerners welcomes 6 new associates in London
Recent news releases from Lerners LLP announced the addition of Greg Woodward, Kevin Wilbee, Emily Woods, Orion Boverhof, Megan Linaric and Daniele Sing as associates in the firm’s London offices.