Law Times

www.lawtimesnews.com LAW TIMES 16 COVERING ONTARIO'S LEGAL SCENE | FEBRUARY 4, 2019 COURT DELAYS INCREASING The time it takes to complete a charge in Canada's criminal and youth courts has been steadily increasing, according to a recent Statistics Canada report. Adult criminal and youth court statistics in Canada, 2016/2017, released on Jan. 24, reveals alarming information about the adult criminal and youth court systems prior to the 2016 R. v. Jordan decision on court delays. "Cases are more complex now than ever before. Accused per- sons are facing a greater number of charges and cases are taking lon- ger to complete," says Daniel Brown, lead counsel at Daniel Brown Law LLP in Toronto. He adds that the data should come as no sur- prise to anyone working within the justice system. The report shows that adult criminal court cases are taking 10-per-cent longer, or a median of 124 days, to complete when com- paring 2016/2017 to 2015/2016. Youth court shows a similar result during the same time period — a seven-per-cent increase in time, to a median of 106 days in total. The report is available at www150. statcan.gc.ca. LAW FIRM BATTLE CONTINUES Lawyer Trung Nguyen was granted leave to appeal an order that struck certain allegations in his statement of defence and counter- claim in a lawsuit with his former law firm, according to a Jan. 24 de- cision from the Court of Appeal of Ontario, Brauti Thorning Zibar- ras LLP v. Nguyen, 2019 ONCA 45. "The pleading sought, which should not be a pleading of evidence, is relevant to at least three issues," wrote a panel of Court of Appeal judges, including Chief Justice George Strathy and Justices Sarah Pepall and Michal Fairburn. The Superior Court order had previously deemed some of Nguyen's allegations were irrelevant and, therefore, scandalous and vexatious. Nguyen worked at Brauti Thorning Zibarras LLP from 2008 to 2015, where he continued to work with a longtime client, Indcondo Building Corporation, according to a 2018 Superior Court decision in the case. When Nguyen left the firm, he took the Indcondo file with him, and BTZ sued Nguyen for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. Nguyen's counterclaim sought the share of the contingency fee payment from the Indcondo litigation that he would have received had he not left BTZ, the Superior Court decision said. SWAN AWARDED LLD BY LSO The Law Society of Ontario awarded Angela Swan an honor- ary degree of Doctor of Laws, the organization announced on Jan. 25. Swan, author of Canadian Contract Law, was recognized for her inf luence in contract law education, the law society said in a press re- lease. LAW TIMES POLL The Law Society of Ontario is considering whether to alter the restrictions on real estate lawyers who get fees and other perks paid by certain title in- surers. Law Times asked readers if they feel it is ethical for real es- tate lawyers to get fees and receive other perks paid by certain title insurers. A majority, 73 per cent, said they did not think it was ethical. A minority, 27 per cent, said it was ethical. LT The Inside Story BY VIOL A JAMES GHOST PLANE MADRID — Officials at an airport in Madrid are dealing with a rather peculiar lost-and-found item, reports CNN. According to CNN, a plane was left parked on the tarmac of the Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport for years now and no one has come to claim it as their own. The director of the airport, Elena Mayoral, "submitted an of- ficial notice" to the official gazette of Spain, reports CNN, which is meant to inform the nation that a plane has been left in a state of abandonment. CNN reports that, according to Spanish law, "authorities must publish official notices about the plane for three consecu- tive months and then wait a year to see if the owner comes for- ward to claim it." Only then can it be considered legally abandoned and sold at auction by the state. Although it is rare for a plane to be abandoned at a working airport, a similar situation occurred at the Kuala Lumpur In- ternational Airport in Malaysia a few years back, reports CNN. In 2015, three Boeing 747 cargo planes were abandoned at different times at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and left for more than a year, prompting airport officials to take out similar ads in newspapers in an attempt to clear them. PARENTAL DRESS CODE MEMPHIS — Antonio Par- kinson, a Tennessee state repre- sentative, is proposing a new bill that would implement a state- wide school dress code for par- ents, TODAY Style reports. Parkinson said that the idea for the bill stemmed from an online meme circulated by ac- counts such as the local radio station that comically suggested parents wear two pairs of pyja- mas when picking up their chil- dren from school due to cold temperatures. Subsequent phone calls to leaders in his district made him aware of just how often adults show up dressed inappropri- ately to public schools across the state. "People wearing next to noth- ing. People wearing shirts or tattoos with expletives. People coming onto a school campus and cursing the principal or the teacher out. These things happen regularly," Parkinson told TODAY Style. These dress code horror stories he heard included one of a woman who showed up to the office of her child's elementary school wear- ing lingerie. Parkinson said that the bill would not only implement a dress code but also ask school districts to independently set code of conduct rules for adults to prevent certain incidents such as fighting or arriving on school grounds under the inf luence, re- ports TODAY Style. Parents took to social media to show positive support for the new bill, citing their own expe- riences with inappropriately dressed parents. Other indi- viduals such as Cecilia Batson, a graduate from a Tennessee pub- lic school, criticized Parkinson and told TODAY Style that there are bigger issues the school sys- tem needs to address first. INK-CREDIBLE THEFT SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. — A man and a woman are wanted in connection with what has turned out to be the most expen- sive shoplifting case in recent Shelbyville memory, reports NewsChannel 5. The pair stole more than 300 ink cartridges from a Walmart in the Tennessee city, amounting to a value of US$11,427. Det. Sgt. Sam Jacobs told NewsChannel 5 that the pair managed to get away with the theft by slipping out the garden centre emergency exit, which lacks any security alarms. The man and woman entered the Walmart at around 3 a.m. and lingered for about an hour before the woman began load- ing their tote bag full of the car- tridges. The man stood lookout and "whenever someone would walk by, they would walk off and stay gone for a couple of minutes and return," Jacobs said to News- Channel 5. Their escape was aided by a third individual waiting in a get- away car outside. Due to both the amount and variability of product stolen, in- vestigators said they believe the pair intends to sell the cartridges online. LAWYER SUES OVER 'HAMILTON' MISHAP HOUSTON — A lawyer in Houston filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster after he accidently purchased Hamilton tickets for the wrong day, Texas Lawyer re- ports. Joshua Davis had originally intended to purchase tickets for the widely acclaimed Broad- way show on March 14 or 15 to celebrate his daughter's 12 th birthday. The three tickets for him, his wife and child totalled US$2,325.20. However, Davis alleges that "when he clicked the back button on his computer," the date was switched to Jan. 17 and his card had been charged for the tickets bearing the incorrect date. According to Texas Lawyer, Davis called Ticketmaster in an attempt to resolve the issue, but he was put on hold and later de- nied reimbursement. Davis filed a suit against the company for "fraudulent in- ducement and breach of con- tract" and further claimed, as a monopoly on lawful ticket sales, Ticketmaster violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, reports Texas Lawyer. He also alleges that the only remedy offered to him by the company was to resell the tickets through the site's fan-to-fan re- sale service. No more than two days fol- lowing the filing of the suit, Ticketmaster contacted Davis and offered a full reimburse- ment of the price of the tickets plus any fees accrued through the filing process. Davis told Texas Lawyer that he is once again "whole" and intends to purchase the tickets again for the correct day. LT Daniel Brown says criminal cases are 'more complex' than before, which is evidenced in a Statistics Canada report that shows court delays are growing. Bizarre Briefs CREDIT: OVCHINNKOV VLADIMIR/SHUTTERSTOCK When you are looking for specialized legal counsel, turn to the resource that showcases peer-ranked Canadian legal talent. lexpert.ca/directory LAWYER Untitled-2 1 2019-01-30 9:24 AM 73 % NO, I DO NOT AGREE 27 % YES, I AGREE

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