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UPFRONT 8 www.canadianlawyermag.com ONTARIO UPDATE 2019-20 TOP 10 O N TA R I O R E G I O N A L F I R M Right-sized Thinking® • 1-800-323-3781 • pallettvalo.com Your Authority For: Business Law • Commercial Litigation • Commercial Real Estate Construction • Insolvency & Corporate Restructuring Employment & Labour • Wills, Estates & Trusts One Size Does Not Fit All Some legal matters require bigger solutions than others. At Pallett Valo LLP we provide pragmatic, forward-thinking legal counsel that fits each client's specific business challenge without compromising service or quality. Try on our Right-sized Thinking® and we'll help you hit the ground running. NEWS BRIEFS Appeal court 'withdraws' decision signed in error A panel Court of Appeal for Ontario judges said the court has "withdrawn" a May 27 decision after it was signed by the wrong judge. "One of the members of the panel that heard the appeal, Justice [Grant] Huscroft, was not provided with either the draft judgment for review or the final judgment for signature. The judgment was signed, in error, by another justice who was not a member of the panel that heard the appeal," Associate Chief Justice Alexandra Hoy and justices Kathryn Feldman and Grant Huscroft wrote in Hilson v. 1336365 Alberta Ltd., 2019 ONCA 653, released Aug. 13. Judge calls out defendant's 'hard-ball' approach An Ontario Superior Court judge said if a defendant takes a "hard-ball" approach to a claim, consequences may follow. "No offer to settle was forthcoming from the defendant," wrote Justice Annette Casullo in the July 19 decision Brophy v. Harrison, 2019 ONSC 4377. "There was not even an offer to go without costs, which effectively left the plaintiff with no choice but to proceed to trial to seek recovery for her injuries." Casullo awarded the plaintiff $275,456.60. "The defendant took what I would view to be a hard-ball approach to this claim, and now must accept the consequences of that decision," wrote Casullo. Regulators re-consider regulated agents in summary conviction Ontario Attorney General Doug Downey announced on Aug. 16 that the Ministry of the Attorney General would "designate authority to the Law Society to determine who has the ability to appear in summary conviction court as a regulated agent." Downey's office cited "concerns expressed by Ontario's legal community," including affordability of legal services and professional experience for law students and licensing candidates. A proposal presented to LSO benchers will likely take the offences — which, before the recent passage of federal law enforcement law Bill C-75, had a maximum six-month penalty — and allow law students, articling students and paralegals to represent clients for those offences. Ontario files carbon tax appeal to SCC Ontario's provincial government has formally filed its appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada on its dispute over the federal carbon tax regime. The provincial government said on Aug. 28 that it would be appealing the constitutionality of the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act, escalating it from the Ontario Court of Appeal. Ontario has intervened in Saskatchewan's appeal of its reference to the Supreme Court of Canada, Alberta's reference to the Alberta Court of Appeal and Manitoba's application for judicial review at the Federal Court. Alford granted standing in national security challenge The Ontario Court of Appeal said law professor Ryan Alford does have public interest standing in his challenge of a national security law that limits parliamentary privilege. Alford is challenging s. 12 of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians Act, which "prevents parliamentary privilege from being invoked if a member of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians is prosecuted for disclosing protected information," according to the Court of Appeal's Aug. 15 decision, Alford v. Canada (Attorney General), 2019 ONCA 657.