Appeals focus on determining whether the trial court erred in law or misapprehended the evidence and what the appropriate remedy is. Typically, absent palpable and overriding error, an appellate Court will not interfere with the facts found by a trial judge. Errors of law however are not entitled to deference on appeal and are decided on a standard of correctness. This area of law is very involved.

Subcontractors, architects, labourers, material suppliers, equipment rental operators, and engineers all have an additional form of protection for their fee in case they don’t get paid in British Columbia. While they will always have a claim under the contract with whomever hired them – whether it is the project manager, general contractor, or someone else in the construction chain, you are largely an unsecured creditor with no guarantee that you will get paid.

Business and commercial law sometimes are used interchangeably but the two are actually quite different. Using a broad brush, business law is focused on the internal affairs of a company (i.e. how it is managed), while commercial law focuses on the external affairs of a company (i.e. the relationship between the business and its customers).

Perhaps you are owed money on account of an unpaid invoice for goods that you sold, or services you provided. Perhaps you made a loan to friend so they could have enough money for the down payment on their first house. In either scenario, you fall into one of the oldest forms of law known to our civilization. Back before the days of class action lawsuits, defamation, and securities proceedings, people sued for money that they were owed.

Most of our clients are first-time offenders without a criminal record – and we do everything in our power to keep it that way. The majority of our clients find themselves under investigation or arrested for offences such as impaired driving, fraud, drug possession offences, tax evasion, possession of stolen property, proceeds of crime and money laundering, domestic assault, and sexual offences.

When a defamatory statement is written, it is referred to as libel, and when it is spoken it is referred to as slander. Defamation is the claim that is advanced when another person’s words cause injury to your reputation. Damages are not limited to just an abstract amount for how much worse you are now perceived in the eyes of the public, all damages that naturally flow and can be casually linked to the defamatory statements can also be awarded against the Defendant.

Employment law focuses on the rights and obligations between non-unionized employers and employees. Some people may improperly be classified as an independent contractor – usually done by the employer as a way to save on paying EI and CPP contributions. The most common cases involve people who have been fired or laid off and either given no severance, or insufficient severance.

Family law deals with the rights and obligations of parents, spouses, and guardians upon separation or divorce. A usual family case involves claim for spousal support, child support, guardianship, access, custody, or parenting time, and division of property. Family case can also start before the marriage or common law relationship solidifies by way of a cohabitation agreement, pre-marital agreement, or pre-nuptial agreement.

Fraud and both negligent misrepresentation and fraudulent misrepresentation are also independent things that you can sue for. The major consequence is that if you obtain a judgment in either fraud, or fraudulent misrepresentation, any judgment that you obtain cannot typically be discharged by the Defendant through bankruptcy.

The professionals that we hire to do work for us have a duty in law to perform their work to the standard of care a competent person in the same profession. The most frequent professionals that have a claim rise against them include lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, home inspectors, and doctors.

Personal injury means more than just motor vehicle cases and ambulance chasing lawyers. It encompasses everything from dog bites, infliction of psychological and emotional suffering, bar brawls, slip and falls, and product liability cases. Occupier’s Liability refers to the obligation for a person who is responsible for a property to make sure that the premise they allow others to enter onto is safe from perils. This applies to a landlords, store owners, property managers, and employers.

All organizations, both owned by a government and private, and both Federally regulated and Provincially regulated, are subject to privacy laws that govern what information they may collect, how they have to store it, and for what purposes they may use it or disclose it. A breach of these privacy regulations can have serious implications for a person, including potential identity theft at a later point in their life, or use of embarrassing information to blackmail a person.

Students at colleges and universities, and professionals subject to regulatory oversight, such as a lawyers, real estate agents, and immigration consultants, may find that they become subject to an investigation or a hearing for a breach of certain rules and regulations by their governing body. All colleges, universities, and professional bodies, also have language in their enabling statute that would allow them to also concurrently punish members for conduct that could form part of a criminal charge.

The purchase and sale of real estate will likely be the largest transaction, or transactions in your life. When the other side fails to complete, or you discover that they misrepresented the condition of the property or failed to be truthful about undesirable features then your only remedy is typically proceeding through the Courts.

Violation / Traffic tickets are actually quasi-criminal charges brought under the Provincial Offence Act. As a result, you are entitled to be presumed innocent and the police have to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. Although they will not result in jail time, or a criminal record, violation tickets do leave an entry on a driving record, often result in “points” that will increase the cost of insurance, and may lead to a driving prohibition.

Wills and estates cases typically involve either an application to vary a will, contesting the capacity of the willmaker or if they were subject to undue influence when they made their last wishes known. Other cases may involve challenges to the priority or lion’s share of an estate by a former partner, or a new partner. These cases can also arise prior to the death of a family member.