Sunday, 26 January 2025

Employers Cannot Rescind Notices of Termination

Can an employer withdraw a termination of employment after it has been delivered to its employee?

In a series of cases from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, one of which I argued, judges have consistently held that an employer cannot.

Sunday, 12 January 2025

Employers May Deduct Statutory Payments from Wrongful Dismissal Damages

When calculating damages for failing to provide reasonable notice of termination, can an employer deduct statutory termination pay and severance already paid to the employee?

The 1996 decision of the Court of Appeal for Ontario in Stevens v. The Globe and Mail, 1996 CanLII 10215 (ON CA), affirmed that the employer is entitled to make such deductions.

Saturday, 11 January 2025

Calculation of Damages for Lost Commissions

How is commission income addressed when calculating severance under Ontario employment law?

In Shelp v. GoSecure Inc., 2025 ONSC 49, the Honourable Justice Charles T. Hackland of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice sitting in Ottawa affirmed that “it is common practice in the case law for courts to estimate a terminated employee’s commission income based on averaging pre-termination earnings.”

Saturday, 4 January 2025

Validity of Arbitration Clauses in Employment Contracts Within Arbitrator’s Jurisdiction: ONCA

Can an employment contract in Ontario legally prohibit someone from suing for wrongful dismissal? Can your employer require you to “arbitrate” your case rather than allowing you to use the public court system?

In Irwin v. Protiviti, 2022 ONCA 533, Ontario’s top court held that arbitration clauses in employment agreements are not automatically “illegal” and that questions about any particular arbitration provision are to presumptively be resolved by an arbitrator, not the courts.

Monday, 16 December 2024

I asked AI to Generate Pictures of Lawyers as Animals

I asked DALL-E, ChatGPT’s image generator, to depict various lawyers as animals and then to explain what caused it to choose the animal selected. Here are the results.

Employment Lawyers as the Fox

Of course I had to start with employment lawyers. DALL-E depicts employment lawyers as foxes. Here its explanation: