Allan Rouben

A grainy video showing eight year old Tori Stafford being led away by one of her killers served as a tragic image in the trial of Tracy-Lynne McClintic and Michael Rafferty. McClintic pled guilty to first degree murder. Rafferty went to trial before a jury and was convicted of first degree murder. The high profile […]

The Dubin Lecture on Advocacy, named in honour of former Chief Justice of Ontario and legendary litigator Charles Dubin, is a series on advocacy started in 1998. Lectures are delivered every two years and have included luminaries of the legal profession from across the globe. Some of them have been very funny. The first speaker,

There has been so much of value written on the subject of oral advocacy that it would be impossible to review these efforts in a short paper. For the purpose of discussing oral advocacy in motions court, there are several approaches that warrant emphasis: (1) put yourself in the position of the audience; (2) the

Overview In its groundbreaking decision in Morguard Investments Ltd. v. De Savoye, [1990] 3 S.C.R. 1077 on the enforcement of interprovincial judgments, the Supreme Court of Canada emphasized the need for “order and fairness” in the assumption of jurisdiction over a defendant resident outside the jurisdiction. The court held that there must be a “real and

The practice of labour law is highly specialized. Practitioners in the field act for either unions or management and never the twain shall meet. It is not uncommon however for union members to complain about the conduct of their union. Obtaining representation in these circumstances can be difficult. Union lawyers will not act on the

Acting for an appellant can feel like climbing Mount Everest. Leading judgments from the Supreme Court of Canada make overturning a trial judgment seem insurmountable. InHousen v. Nikolaisen, [2002] 2 S.C.R. 235 (S.C.C.) the Court held that a trial judge’s findings of fact cannot be overturned in the absence of a palpable and overriding error.

When the Rules of Civil Procedure came into effect in 1985, they heralded a new approach to the use of summary judgment. A procedure that had previously been available only to Plaintiffs and only in claims that were specially endorsed was now, under Rule 20, available to either party and the responding party was warned

There have been so many useful papers written on appellate advocacy that it’s a little daunting to say anything fresh. While I can’t offer any blindingly new insights, I would like to focus on a few aspects of advocacy that I think merit attention: the importance of context; getting straight to the point; and making

Overview The Simplified Procedure provided for in Rule 76 of the Rules of Civil Procedure was introduced into our litigation system in 1996 and expanded in 2002 to encompass claims for up to $50,000.00. The purpose of the Simplified Rules is to reduce the procedure and attendant cost associated with such claims and thereby promote