Topics covered in this week's Court of Appeal decisions include class actions, family law, and bankruptcy proceedings. Several decisions touched on procedure, such as the rule prohibiting a pre-trial judge from presiding over a summary judgment motion without the parties' consent, whether the stay of proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act stays contempt proceedings, the timing of the hearing of a motion to quash an appeal, and full and frank disclosure when seeking ex parte orders.

There were three civil decisions of note this week. Two were family law cases, one involving an attack on fraudulent conveyances. The other was a “priority dispute” between insurers in the statutory accident benefits context.

Welcome to another week of summaries of civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. Topics covered include municipal liability, contracts, employment law, stay pending appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada and class actions (adding representative plaintiffs and whether breach of the price-fixing provisions of the Competition Act can constitute the unlawful act element of the tort of civil conspiracy).

For the end of July, this was a fairly busy week for the Court of Appeal. Topics covered included family law, professional negligence, professional misconduct, vexatious litigants, dismissal for delay, unjust enrichment (office pool lottery winnings), breach of contract and construction law.

Until recently, investment in litigation by third parties was a taboo subject in Ontario, however thanks to recent case Schenk v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, it's now on the cusp of taking hold in Ontario.

Lawyers don’t come close to fully serving the legal needs that exist in society. There can be no ethical justification for prohibiting that which lawyers don’t actually provide nor, more scarily, what can be effectively provided at lower cost.

This issue’s debate looks at the increasingly popular robo-advisor; used in financial services, robo-advisors provide wealth management advice based on an automated algorithm, in place of live financial advisors. Could this technology be successfully applied to legal services? Would it be a boon to the profession or a means to increase access to justice?

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