All About Estates

Category: Courts

Total 51 Posts

Contempt and Custodial Sentences

On the de VRIES LITIGATION LLP website, I previously blogged about orders for contempt and the nuances associated with seeking and obtaining this declaratory relief. This blog will take the discussion a step further and look at what penalties may be imposed upon a contemnor; in particular, the discussion will…

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All I Want for Christmas is Legal Ownership of My Yorkshire Terrier

Pictured: My beloved dog, Yuki, in her Christmas tree outfit. When thinking about what to write for this week’s blog post, I realized that I have the last Fasken slot before Christmas. This got me thinking: what can I write that’s relevant to the holidays? It then dawned on me…

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A Reminder of the Importance of a Cy-Près Clause

As an estate planning professional, philanthropy is a great tool in your toolkit. However, if your client intends to incorporate philanthropy into their estate plan, the importance of including a cy‑près clause in their Will cannot be understated. If there is no cy‑près clause in the Will and the charity…

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Lam v Law Estate: Gender bias permits variation of discriminatory will

Today’s blog post was written by Latoya Brown, an Associate at Fasken LLP. The discussion of discriminatory wills continues with a new case out of the British Columbia Supreme Court. In Lam v Law Estate, 2024 BCSC 156, the court varied a testatrix’s will on the reasoning that the testatrix’s…

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Waters v Henry: Respecting a Testator’s Free Will to Make “Bad” Decisions

Irina Samborski, associate and Caroline Mercer, articling student, Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP When an estate is litigated, a deceased person’s decision-making is forced into the public record. Sometimes, the court is asked to pass judgement and correct decisions that may seem unreasonable or unfair. However, some courts prefer to uphold…

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When exercising discretion, what factors should a Trustee of a discretionary trust take into account?

Maddi Thomas, Associate Gowling WLG (Canada) LLP Where a trust holds non-liquid assets that are to be distributed amongst multiple beneficiaries, how can the trustee ensure that their use of discretion was as fair, equitable, and diplomatic as possible? On a related note, when will a court interfere with a…

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Administering an Estate: A Marathon of Responsibilities

We had a Zoom call with our adult children a few weekends ago. We talked about our son’s engagement, as our daughter hadn’t yet heard the details of how he had proposed. We also talked about our daughter’s recent 5K run at the Toronto Zoo and how it compared to…

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Does an Adult Child have an Obligation to Support their Parent?

*This blog was researched and authored by Jonathon Vander Zee, who is an articling student with de VRIES LITIGATION LLP.  There are many different kinds of support that can be sought as relief in a legal proceeding, such as child support, spousal support, and dependant’s support. These types of support…

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Contempt of Court

We’ve all heard of contempt of court, a common fixture in many courtroom dramas and law-related TV shows. In reality, civil contempt of court is quite uncommon, arising only on occasion during contentious litigation. In the estates context, contempt of court is most often linked to a party’s refusal to…

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