Wednesday: What’s Hot on CanLII

Each Wednesday we tell you which three English-language cases and which French-language case have been the most viewed* on CanLII and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about.

For this last week:

1. R v Stephan, 2016 ABQB 353

[7] When the impact of this offence is considered, the Court considers how the commission of the offence by Mr. Stephan and Ms. Stephan has affected Ezekiel, other victims, and the community. This part of the inquiry is not about a public debate on, for example, state intervention, natural remedies, or whether there should even be community standards. This is about what effect has been caused by morally blameworthy conduct that contributed significantly to put Ezekiel’s life at risk. For Ezekiel, he was denied medical attention that could have made a difference; he could have lived. For the community, we are all diminished when otherwise loving parents fail to meet a minimal standard of care that puts their child’s life at risk.

(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

2. Caputo v Novak, 2016 ONSC 4176

[43] It is in the best interests of the proper administration of justice for litigants to expect that lawyers who represent them will be properly insured, thus protecting their interests. In the absence of the “offending” George v. Harris factors, it is not in the interests of the proper administration of justice to adopt an overly technical approach in scrutinizing a Notice of Motion that will prevent litigants from determining whether there is a legal basis for them to access the protection provided by the Policy.
(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

3. Wedlake v Richey, 2016 ONSC 4262

[56] Third, having regard to the fact that it was Mr. Richey’s obligation, as a solicitor, to ensure that his client’s interests were protected, one would expect that independent legal advice would have been insisted upon by Mr. Richey before the debt obligations were entered into. Furthermore, the consent of the client to the rather unusual payment arrangement should have been recorded, so that an independent solicitor, giving advice to the client, could be fully informed and be able to give proper advice as to whether the transactions should have been entered into in the first place. No document purporting to fully inform the client as to the unusual payment arrangement has been produced.

(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

The most-consulted French-language decision was Dunsmuir c. Nouveau-Brunswick, 2008 CSC 9

1. Une fois de plus, la Cour est appelée à se pencher sur l’épineuse question de la démarche qu’il convient d’adopter pour le contrôle judiciaire des décisions des tribunaux administratifs. Au Canada, l’évolution récente du contrôle judiciaire a été marquée par une déférence variable, l’application de critères déroutants et la qualification nouvelle de vieux problèmes, sans qu’une solution n’offre de véritables repères aux parties, à leurs avocats, aux décideurs administratifs ou aux cours de justice saisies de demandes de contrôle judiciaire. Le temps est venu de réévaluer la question.

(Check for commentary on CanLII Connects)

* As of January 2014 we measure the total amount of time spent on the pages rather than simply the number of hits; as well, a case once mentioned won’t appear again for three months.