Wills, Trusts & Estates

  • July 26, 2024

    SCC’s 9-0 judgment on interpreting historic treaties a big win for First Nations, their counsel say

    Live up to the honour of the Crown and its “sacred” treaty promises — or the courts will step in.

  • July 25, 2024

    Judicial appointment announced for Northwest Territories

    Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada Arif Virani announced the appointment of Karin L.E. Taylor as a judge of the Supreme Court of the Northwest Territories, according to a July 24 news release.

  • July 25, 2024

    ‘Hey Siri, how can I use AI in my legal practice?’

    Whether we realize it or not, artificial intelligence (AI) has the ability to make our lives easier every day. The seamless integration of AI into our personal and professional lives became apparent with the rise of ChatGPT generating emails, speeches and various other documents from simple instructions and the click of a button.

  • July 24, 2024

    New managing partner for Aird & Berlis

    Jill P. Fraser, a senior partner in Aird & Berlis’s financial services group and a long-standing member of the executive committee, the firm’s new managing partner.

  • July 24, 2024

    Collaborative law and its role in estate disputes

    Collaborative law, commonly used in family law, is an innovative approach to dispute resolution — introduced to the Canadian legal landscape in 1998 — where the lawyers and parties involved in a dispute agree in advance to resolve their conflict using co-operative strategies that are out of court rather than adversarial techniques and litigation.

  • July 23, 2024

    Canadian securities regulators stepped up enforcement in 2023-24, driven in part by crypto schemes

    Canadian securities regulators commenced 83 enforcement proceedings between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, with 27 cases of selling securities illegally making it the most common offence, according to the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA) annual year-in-review report.

  • July 17, 2024

    B.C. court dismisses defamation action against charity researcher under anti-SLAPP law

    The B.C. Supreme Court has dismissed a defamation lawsuit brought against a writer who published letters alleging that a philanthropic gift was part of a massive tax fraud scam, finding that public interest weighed in favour of protecting the writer’s expression.

  • July 17, 2024

    B.C. Court of Appeal issues groundbreaking ruling on reverse vesting orders in receiverships

    The Court of Appeal for British Columbia recently issued a landmark decision that is set to reshape insolvency proceedings.

  • July 16, 2024

    Do you have a death folder?

    When it comes to estate planning, choosing an executor is important. However, it’s not just about the person; it’s about ensuring they have the necessary tools to carry out your wishes. You need to identify the information, documents and contact names your executor will need to ensure the future of your estate and the interests of your beneficiaries are well taken care of. Creating a file folder, digital or otherwise, to hold the information you gather is a great place to start.

  • July 11, 2024

    Unsolved murder: Perfect crime against perfect trustee

    In the evening hours of April 1, 1991, on what otherwise may have been a relatively unassuming day in Düsseldorf, Germany, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder was murdered at his home in cold blood. The case remains unsolved and arguably ranks as Germany’s own version of the JFK assassination — a prominent member of the government establishment gone far too soon with seemingly no one to hold accountable.