Jonathan’s Jots

Although lay-offs are permitted and regulated under the Employment Standards Act of Ontario, they have been historically considered a constructive dismissal at common law. One of my cases from 1996, McHugh v Fitness Canada Health Spa helped establish that line of cases. The theory underneath was that the Employment Standards

A very recent Ontario case considered the effect of the changes to the Employment Standards Act brought about by Covid. The court ruled that these changes meant that a business would not be in trouble with the Ministry for commencing a Covid lay off, but that the changes to the

One thing I love about being a litigation lawyer, even a somewhat old and specialized one like me, is that there is always something new in the case law that can greatly impact Superior Court wrongful or constructive dismissal litigation. In Superior Court litigation, each party has to produce a

Normally, courts and law generally, are about 10 years behind the times. Not so with Covid 19. There is a stated and an unstated reason why courts are considering the realities of Covid 19 in sentencing decisions. The stated reason is that jails and prisons have become even more dangerous

The Covid 19 crisis has brought out the best in the legal profession. I have seen some small town high tech firms offer their help to their cross town rivals in closing real estate deals. I have seen criminal lawyers in small towns agree to handle everyone’s adjournment of criminal

As society changes, courts struggle to adapt. Trial courts (through the advocacy efforts of counsel) will sometimes create a new tort in their written decision in a civil litigation case. Usually they will do that in conjunction with their decision regarding other, well established torts. For example, a trial court