Sea to Sky Law Blog

WHAT IS PROBATE - IS IT ALWAYS NEEDED Apparently, less than half of us have a Will, or worse the Will is not current because circumstances have changed! You should critique your estate planning documents at least once a year and definitely upon any major change in your life eg change of assets, c...

Disputes are solved by agreement or by court order after determining the relevant facts and law. Both dispute-solving options require first a determination of the facts; the facts then determine the applicable law. The basic facts of WHO did WHAT, WHEN, and WHERE provide an excellent framework to...

2024 Local business person of the year BOSTON, MA: March 5, 2024 -- Alignable's 2024 Local Business Person Of The Year Contest reached unparalleled participation levels, logging a whopping 309,000+ votes, 64,000+ recommendations, and an unheard of number of local winners – over 5,100 across the ...

A couple meeting with a lawyer for estate planning The Importance of Estate Planning in British Columbia: Whether you're just starting a family or approaching retirement in British Columbia, estate planning is a critical step in protecting your hard-earned assets and ensuring your loved ones are...

Variety of Flowers Relationships are like flowers - there is a huge variety. Like flowers, at first relationships are attractive and colorful and interesting but then, as the saying goes, the bloom goes off the rose. If you know of a relationship that has lost its bloom and needs help then I...

Judge What is Justice, Just a predictable result, or Is It a Point Being Made? I encourage you to see the movie And Justice For All - think about the point being made. Even in Canada, people complain about how a different Judge should be elected to give a more just Judgment. Think about it - ...

Recently achieved a significant victory at the Port Coquitlam Family Court for a father, namely an Order that he has sole Guardianship thus all parenting responsibilities, etc. Under the 2013 Family Law Act, both parents living with their child before separation are both automatically Guardians...

disagreement Solving Family Disputes by Agreement Before Court Have you heard about the new BC Provincial Court Family Law Process = the Early Resolution and Case Management process? It is like solving family disputes before going to court. This new family dispute process has been tested in Vi...

Document Interpretation - what a document means - is the greatest challenge when drafting and the subject of many court cases. Our Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) released an important decision Friday 23 July 2021, Corner Brook (City) v Bailey, 2021 SCC 29, confirming its 2014 decision about contra...

Question: Are family assets divided differently upon separation if you are common-law and not married? Answer: The 1867 British North America Act (BNA) created the legal framework of Canada, assigning different responsibilities or jurisdictions of activities to the Federal and Provincial Govern...

Guardianship under the BC 2013 Family Law Act because if you are not a Guardian then you cannot have Parenting Responsibilities etc; you are limited to Contact time. If parents do not live together with their child before they separate then they are not both presumed Guardians under s39(1). The...

Tort of negligence This case also confirms at paragraph 15: "The foundation of the modern law of negligence is the neighbour principal established in Donoghue v Stevenson, (1932) A C. 562 (H.L.), under which "parties owe a duty of care to those whom they ought reasonably to have in contemplation...

Conflict of Interest? What does it mean when a lawyer says there is a conflict of interest? Why do I have to show ID and retain a lawyer before getting my questions answered? To protect the public from uneducated advice, only lawyers are allowed to provide legal advice. Lawyers are vetted and ...

QUESTION: If a parent has a custody order but has not exercised the custody leaving the children in the care of non-custodial parents; and does not speak to the children, nor financially help with the children, can a non-custodial parent who has actual care of the children apply for custody? ...

SAVE MONEY WITH LEGAL ADVICE Two newspaper articles that were in the Vancouver Sun about two different legal claims being dismissed emphasize the need for good legal advice before you file a legal claim. See: "Judge rules against Vancouver woman whose face was bitten by friends' dog at a dinner ...

IMMIGRATION DUE DILIGENCE On 20 May 2023 the Canadian Press reported that our Federal Court upheld a 2022 decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) (see Canlii: IRB decision ID File No.: 0001-C1-00568-01-AH; UCI / IUC: 108152797). This IRB decision held that Ms Kaur had to be...

Builders Lien - leverage created by legislation to allow several categories of contributors to the land, including workers and material suppliers, to pressure the land owner to pressure the Head Contractor to pay what is owed. The pressure comes from the ability of the contributor to file a lie...

DEFAMATION versus FAIR COMMENT The recent decision of Hansman v. Neufeld, 2023 SCC 14 by our Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) on 19 May 2023 is a good example of the balancing of interests in our "free" society where we expect to have individual freedom of speech but there also has to be a balance ...

The emotion in a family separation is usually related to two major subjects - children and money. This post is about the division of assets. See my other posts about support and parenting rights. By the 2013 Family Law Act, British Columbia enacted a law that applies the same to both married and ...

CHILD SUPPORT ARREARS Did you know that child support, since it is the right of the child, is a priority for the courts to calculate and enforce. Further, FMEP was created to provide parents with a free collection and enforcement service - even if the other parent does not live in the same Prov...

NOTE - our Supreme Court of Canada, our highest court in Canada, has clarified the law about retroactive child support and made other important policy statements. By a full unanimous decision stated at the hearing on 14 November 2019, with written reasons 18 September 2020, the Court confirmed ...

Small business expenses Often small businesses try to save money by hiring contractors instead of employees. Employees cost their employer CPP and EI contributions in addition to wages and employees must be given adequate notice or pay in lieu if the employer wants to terminate an employee wit...

Have you heard about the new BC Provincial Court Family Law Process = the Early Resolution and Case Management process ? This new family dispute process has been tested in Victoria through a pilot project and as of 7 December 2020 it is the required process in the Surrey Provincial Court as wel...

A little too late? The Supreme Court of Canada 🇨🇦 issued an important decision for business law on 18 December 2020. In the decision C.M. Callow Inc. V. Zellweger, 2020 SCC 45, our highest court affirmed its 2014 decision that honesty is required in business. Our SCC has held that the duty of ...

Did I run out of time? First of course is the caveat - THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE! This is only general information. No writing on the internet for the public to read is legal advice - legal advice is your personal lawyer telling you about your personal legal issue. ​ Also the law is often diffe...