One Sunday each month we bring you a summary from Supreme Advocacy LLP of recent decisions at the Supreme Court of Canada. Supreme Advocacy LLP offers a weekly electronic newsletter, Supreme Advocacy Letter, to which you may subscribe. It’s a summary of all Appeals, Oral Judgments and Leaves to Appeal granted from June 26 – August 31, 2026 inclusive.

Appeal

Civil Litigation: Spoliation of Evidence
SS&C Technologies Canada Corp. v. Bank of New York Mellon Corp, 2024 ONCA 675; 2026 SCC 29 (41543) July 31, 2026

Spoliation is the intentional destruction, alteration, mutilation, or concealment of evidence . . . [more]

Every week we present the summary of a decision handed down by a Québec court provided to us by SOQUIJ and considered to be of interest to our readers throughout Canada. SOQUIJ is attached to the Québec Department of Justice and collects, analyzes, enriches, and disseminates legal information in Québec.

PÉNAL (DROIT) : Après l’incident survenu à la fin du procès lors duquel 2 boîtes ont été déposées par erreur dans la salle de délibération du jury, l’enquête menée par la juge était suffisante.

Intitulé : Theus c. R., 2026 QCCA 1107
Juridiction : Cour d’appel (C.A.), Montréal
Décision de . . . [more]

In my last post, The Dangers of Catastrophizing in Client Communications, I outlined the negative impact of catastrophizing on lawyer well being. While lawyers need to predict outcomes and envision worst-case scenarios, several conditions such chronic pain, anxiety, depression and fatigue are exacerbated by catastrophic thinking. I proposed that our catastrophic thinking could bleed into our client communications and cause them similar harm. We must strike a balance between utilizing our catastrophizing skillset and delivering options to clients in a way that allows them to make informed decisions without causing unnecessary anxiety.

Substituting catastrophic language with more neutral language . . . [more]

A consensus is emerging in law schools across Canada and the US that AI has no place in teaching the core curriculum, because it impedes student learning, especially in first year. Schools are beginning to follow the University of Chicago’s lead in banning AI in first-year core courses. Some profs are also banning laptops in classrooms — taking every precaution to shield students’ developing minds from the corrosive effects of AI.

Michael Plaxton, one of the leading voices in Canada thinking through the many challenges AI poses to legal education, crystallizes the argument:

“The case for law schools must be . . . [more]

Each month, we tell you which five English-language cases and French-language cases have been the most viewed* on CanLII in the previous month and we give you a small sense of what the cases are about using CanLII-published AI-generated summaries of the case or case excerpts.

For this past month, the five most-consulted English-language decisions were:

1. Baker v. Van Dolder’s Home Team Inc., 2026 ONCA 568

AI-generated summary:

Facts: An employee works as a controller and head of finance under an employment contract containing “without cause” and “with cause” termination provisions. Van Dolder terminates the employee’s employment without . . . [more]

My five-part “The Law Firm” series frames issues and proposes solutions to the global legal service market’s juggernaut triplets – Artificial Intelligence, Pricing, and Talent Transience.

For some unfathomable reason, many law firms have tended not to run as businesses, choosing instead to emphasize top line revenue rather than bottom line profitability.

This is one of the reasons why many law firms have historically considered themselves to be successful. Ironically, it is also why law firm mergers and acquisitions have increased with the speed of summer lightning of late as have insolvencies and failures.

The Juggernaut Triplets

The juggernaut triplets . . . [more]