News update

On July 1, 2021, reforms to continency fees came into effect through the following: ·       Solicitors Act – amendments including the repeal of s. 28.1(8), which prohibited the inclusion of costs in the amount on which a contingency fee calculation is based. ·       O. Reg. 563/20: Contingency Fee Agreements – a new regulation requiring the use of a new standard form Contingency Fee Agreement (CFA), incorporated by reference. ·       Rules of Professional Conduct – amendments pertaining to required disclosures, information and reporting relating to CFA’s. The OBA is presently working with the Law Society and Ministry of the Attorney General to remedy potential situations in which the application of the new requirements may be broader than intended.

The Law Society of Ontario has made amendments to the standardized Document Registration Agreement (DRA) for two party and multi-party situations, which govern the relationship between the parties in electronic registrations until all documents and funds have been exchanged and electronic registration has been effected. The OBA has been advocating for the LSO to update these documents to make them consistent with current practices and, accordingly, we welcome this move by the LSO. The new DRAs address a number of critical issues that were not in previous versions of the documents including: vendor take back mortgages; documents returned for correction by the Land Registry Office; door codes and wiring of funds. The updated DRAs are now available on the Electronic Registration of Title Documents page of the Law Society's website. The DRA is an important part of every transaction and we encourage all counsel to familiarize themselves with it. We will be offering programming in the near future to assist counsel with this. For ease of review, blacklines of the new DRAs (to the old versions) are available here and here. The Real Property Section of the OBA is continuing to advocate for further updates including the mortgage discharge guidelines. If you have any questions, please email advocacy@oba.org.

The final regulations to implement the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act, 2010 (ONCA) and the new Ontario Business Registry System (OBR) have been filed and can be found below.

Most amendments made to the Business Corporations Act (OBCA) in the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, 2020 (Bill 213) will be coming into force on July 5, 2021, including:

The Ministry of the Attorney General has advised that as of May 31, 2021, credit and debit cards payments for documents filed through Justice Services Online (JSO) will not be charged fees until the documents submitted have been accepted for filing by court staff. 

Ontario’s Stay-at-Home order is set to expire on June 2. However, all other public health and workplace measures are remaining in place provincewide.

The Ontario E-Hearings Task Force, comprised of members of the Ontario Bar Association working with other lawyer associations from across Ontario have developed a guide for best practices for remote hearings, which includes practical tools like checklists and technology information. The purpose of these materials is to provide guidance to anyone who is considering preparing for and participating in a remote hearing. These Best Practices are intended to apply to any remote hearing and to be platform neutral.

The Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee advises the Attorney General of Ontario on the appointment of Judges to the Ontario Court of Justice, and invites applications for a judicial position in Oshawa.

Attorney General Doug Downey has announced a new judicial appointment, effective June 3, 2021. Justice Paul Martin Cooper has previously worked as a federal Crown attorney and as an adjudicator with the Law Society Tribunal. Justice Cooper was also a trustee with the Law Foundation of Ontario and a Bencher of the Law Society of Ontario. Chief Justice Lise Maisonneuve has assigned Justice Cooper to Newmarket. For more information, please see the News Bulletin.

The province has extended booking eligibility at COVID-19 immunization clinics to people 18 and over. This means that anyone 18 and over in 2021 is now eligible to book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment through the provincial booking system and call centre, or directly through public health units that use their own booking system.