Canadian Lawyer

UPFRONT 6 www.canadianlawyermag.com ONTARIO UPDATE NEWS BRIEFS LSO bencher, equity advisor clash on diversity The head of the Law Society of Ontario's Equity Advisory Group said he may launch a formal complaint against a bencher. Nima Hojjati said on Twitter that a bencher asked for his resignation from the EAG, "[n]ot because of my work, but because they could tell that 'I hate democracy by looking at me'." Hojjati's allegations come amid a larger diversity debate within Convocation. Bencher Murray Klippenstein disseminated a lengthy salvo questioning the LSO's methodology and statistical analysis when surveying the prevalence of systemic racism in the legal profession. Ford: Judges should 'toughen up' on guns, gangs, bail Judges and justices of the peace are being too gentle with firearm offenders, Ontario's premier said. Asked whether border officers need more money to prevent gun smuggling, Doug Ford said what the federal government should be doing is "focusing on bail reform." "Judges and JPs have to toughen up," said Ford. "What's frustrating to not only ourselves but the police is they catch a gangbanger and they are out on the street the next day." Ford said his personal message to criminals was: "We're going to lock you up for a long time." Outsized award against insurer An adjudicator admonished an insurer for "imprudent, inflexible and immoderate" behaviour in a recent Licence Appeal Tribunal decision, ordering the company to pay an unusual "special award." The decision requires the insurer to pay for attendant care and home modificationsbut also 25 per cent of the benefits it had denied. The insurer's legal chief says the out-of-the- ordinary LAT decision would change the job descriptions of insurance adjusters to include micromanaging assessors. But a lawyer who represented the injured man says that, if the insurer were allowed to rely on opinions of its chosen assessors, it would let the company off the hook for payments. Is settlement enforceable? Insured died before signing What happens when an insurer and accident victim reach a settlement — but the insured dies before they can sign the dotted line? That's the conundrum, or "novel fact situation," currently before the Ontario courts. The late Gerald Riggs participated in a Dec. 17, 2018 mediation. A settlement was reached, with instructions sent to participants on Dec. 19. The documents were sent Jan. 8 — but unfortunately, Riggs died unexpectedly on Jan. 3. Riggs' wife and estate trustee signed the forms and returned them to Intact, but the settlement has not been paid by Intact "because of the lack of personal signature by Mr. Riggs." Messaging app data overturns conviction The Court of Appeal of Ontario found a man was wrongly imprisoned for robbery and assault after the police and trial counsel did not authenticate key data from a smartphone app. At the time appellant Lance Richardson was arrested, he showed police officers voicemails from his friends called "Toti" and "Kemistry." In the messages, Toti describes how Kem helped Toti perpetrate a robbery. However, the officer did not seize Richardson's mobile phone. On appeal, the Crown agreed the messages could reasonably have been expected to affect the result at trial. Bringing down nameless internet trolls How do you sue someone you can't identify? Lawyers did just that in Ontario's Superior Court SARA ERSKINE and Shannon Bennett represented Theralase Technologies, Roger Dumoulin-White and Kristina Hachev, who were successful against 10 "John Doe" defendants. Justice Frederick Myers found that "judg- ment can issue against the defendant despite the fact that the plaintiffs and the court do not know the defendant's name." "Nothing in the Rules of Civil Procedure anticipates final judgments being granted against unidentified defendants," wrote Myers. "There are many cases started with placeholder names like 'John Doe' pending the identification of the actual defendant before final judgment issues. But counsel was able to locate only one precedent in Ontario specifically granting a final judgment against an unidentified party." The case revolved around Stockhouse. com, a website with public and private messa- ging forums for traders and investors. The people accused of defaming Theralase did not use their real names to post on the forum; rather, they sent messages using names such as PennyOilKing, BlueBomber6, BionicJoe, MacMan1519, NastyNasta, Need2Know68,

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