A grantor may appoint more than one person as attorney under a power of attorney and may specify whether those attorneys are to act jointly or “jointly and severally”. Where attorneys are appointed jointly, they must make decisions together and are collectively responsible for each other’s actions. By contrast, a joint and several appointment permits […]
The lawyers and articling students at de VRIES LITIGATION write two articles each month. The articles are shared by email and on social media. In 2025, these were the top five articles from the de VRIES LITIGATION blog. Solicitor-Client Privilege and Beyond – de Vries Litigation: What happens when a client dies? What becomes of
On January 1, 2022, Ontario moved away from being a strict compliance jurisdiction and towards a substantial compliance jurisdiction. This trend follows suit of many of Ontario’s provincial neighbours, such as British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba, among others. The change results from the introduction of section 21.1 of the Succession Law Reform Act (“SLRA”), which
In a discretionary trust, the trustees are given complete discretion concerning distributions of income or capital. The trustees may have the discretion to choose the timing of the distributions, as well as the recipients, amounts, and conditions of the distributions. The trustees may also have the discretion to exclude any one or more of the
After someone dies, the questions can sometimes become: who is allowed to live in their house? While the answer may be more straightforward for married spouses or for houses owned in joint tenancy, for example, that may not always be the case for common law spouses where legal title to the deceased person’s house was
