Few things are as frustrating and threatening in business as a dispute with an organization or individual over payment, delivery of goods, rights to real or personal property, breach of contract, negligence or fraud. Such a dispute can impair business profitability, and even pose risks to the fundamental viability of the business depending on the magnitude of the issues.

WE PROVIDE BUSINESSES WITH SOLUTIONS TO DISPUTES

We help businesses settle legal disputes as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, so that they can focus on operating and expanding their business, rather than being distracted by potentially costly disagreements. We do that through a combination of negotiations, mediation, arbitration and litigation, making use of all legal tools available under Ontario and Candian Federal law, including diligently seeking remedies from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice (including the Small Claims Court), Federal Court, Court of Appeal for Ontario, Federal Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada.

The firm’s Senior Barrister Gordon S. Campbell has three decades of experience in dispute resolution in and out of court throughout Canada, in French and English, and is author of Doing Business in Canada, looseleaf (Toronto: LexisNexis Canada, 2023). The firm’s Senior Solicitor Matthew MacLean has almost a decade of experience dealing with complex corporate and commercial business and real property transactions, in French and English. The firm is centrally located between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and typically does not charge for required travel to business centres.

We Respect All Referrals

Business solicitors refer their business disputes to us where we would only handle the dispute part for the client, with the solicitor maintaining the client for all other purposes.

We Offer a Complimentary Case Evaluation

We’ll look at the information you initially provide to us including your documents without charge in order to tell you if we believe we would be able to help you, including whether you have some prospect of legal success in your case. While this can’t be a formal detailed legal opinion on your case which could require legal work spanning weeks or months of time, it will hopefully give you a sense of whether we are a law firm you’d like to work with, and the basics of developing a legal services plan to help you with your business dispute situation. In very complex cases, we might suggest a more formal paid consultation or legal opinion be prepared for you.

No Travel Charges in GTA and Eastern Ontario & Reduced Charges Elsewhere

We’re conveniently based between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, and always welcome clients coming out to meet with us in person. We generally don’t charge for any required travel time or disbursements in the Greater Toronto Area and Eastern Ontario for business litigation and dispute resolution, and pass on our lower overhead saving to our clients with lower legal services rates than are often the norm in big cities with higher overheads, though post-pandemic business litigation and dispute resolution has become a hybrid of remote and in-person practices.

We act for businesses involved in all industries, working to solve both internal and external disputes including:

partnership disputes;
shareholder disputes;
commercial contract disputes;
commercial leasing disputes;
commercial property disputes;
natural resources harvesting disputes;
business disputes with government;
employee, union & other human resources disputes;
taxation disputes - sales, GST/HST, Excise, Income Tax.

We appear in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Court of Appeal for Ontario, Ontario Divisional Court, Ontario Small Claims Court, Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Canada, and before administrative boards and tribunals for our business clients.

We deal with cross-jurisdictional disputes, including interprovincial and international business disputes, including:

enforcement of or defence against foreign judgments in Ontario or Federally in Canada;
choice of forum disputes, asserting or resisting jurisdiction in Ontario's or Federal Canada courts;
gathering of evidence in Ontario for use in proceedings in other provinces or countries, including use of Anton Piller orders (civil search warrants);
seizure and freezing of disputes goods or assets within Ontario through injunctive relief including Mareva Injunctions
obtaining judgment within Ontario courts or at the Federal Court for enforcement elsewhere.

HOW TO SETTLE A BUSINESS DISPUTE IN ONTARIO

There are four methods to settle any business dispute:

Negotiations - usually the cheapest business dispute settlement method, lawyers should always be involved in drawing up a final settlement agreement after the negotiators reach an agreement-in-principle, but the lawyers don’t necessarily need to be involved in the basic negotiations themselves, such as who pays who how much, and in exchange for what.
Mediation - still a relatively inexpensive method of business dispute settlement, often lawyers are involved with mediation but sometimes in more active ways than at other times, in that the lawyers could just refer the business parties to a mediator who would meet with the parties without the lawyers present, or even if present the lawyers could take a background role in the mediation only providing advice to the parties rather than making submissions to the mediator, or the lawyers could more actively be involved in making submissions on behalf of the parties to the mediator. While mediation involves the cost of a mediator, that cost is usually quite minor as compared to what the lawyers alone might have cost to date prior to mediation in advising the parties on their rights in the dispute, and perhaps trying to negotiate between them a dispute resolution.
Other than relatively minor cost, mediation rarely has a downside, as its results are never binding on the parties unless they want to be bound by way of a final settlement agreement. A skilled mediator can give all parties a reality check as to how the dispute is likely to turn out for them after much more costly litigation or arbitration; if the parties believe the mediator, they might follow the mediator’s recommendations on best-case outcome while saving the cost of litigation or arbitration. However, some mediators are more inclined to simply explore the parties’ interests with them in order to bring them together to settle, whereas other (usually more experienced) mediators tend to simply tell parties what to do in order to settle - though it will be up to the parties if they are willing to agree to do that.
Arbitration - while sometimes perceived as a quick and inexpensive way to resolve a business dispute, an arbitration could actually become more expensive than litigation if a large amount of arbitrator time is consumed in preparation and hearing the dispute, many lawyers are involved in drafting submissions, presenting evidence and making arguments to the arbitrator, and one party attempts to appeal the arbitration result (even if there is agreement there will be no appeal). However, because arbitrators - who are sometimes retired judges - don’t suffer from the same case backlogs as plague the courts, will at least almost always be quicker than litigation.
Litigation - litigation should always be a method of last resort in business disputes, where parties have already assessed whether it’s possible to settle without involving the courts, because of litigation’s potential to escalate hostilities, run up costs such that parties feel compelled to recoup those extra costs by extracting greater concessions from the other side in any potential settlement, and generally set the parties on a course of a freight train with poor brakes that will be difficult to stop once it gets rolling. However, sometimes early litigation is necessary, like if an injunction, certificate of pending litigation, or limitation period needs to be quickly dealt with.

A lawyer can best advise you of which of these four settlement methods will work best to resolve your business dispute, though typically three of the four can be used in progressive steps, where lawyers first attempt negotiations, then escalate to mediation, and finally land on arbitration or litigation.

WHAT IS A MAREVA INJUNCTION & HOW CAN IT RESOLVE A BUSINESS DISPUTE?

A Mareva injunction is an asset freezing order issued by a Superior Court in Canada, like the Ontario Superior Court of Justice or the Federal Court, which requires a defendant to account for assets and not dispose of or move them except under strict court supervision. Such orders are sometimes obtained ex parte from a court without the defendant’s knowledge until they are served, so as to prevent dissipation or flight of targetted assets prior to the order being issued.

These aren’t routine orders, and require an applicant to demonstrate compelling risk that a defendant will improperly move or sell assets, and a compelling case of the rights of the applicant to those assets. They’re often used against high value very moveable assets like aircraft or ships which could be out of a court’s jurisdiction within hours of their owners learning the moveable assets are the subject of civil litigation. They’re less common for real estate which isn’t “moveable” property, and for which a certificate of pending litigation is usually sufficient to be registered on title so that the tile can’t be transferred to a new owner without court approval.

While bank accounts, investments and other liquid assets are also often targetted in Mareva injunction proceedings, an applicant knowing about the location of those liquid assets may be more challenging as there is usually no public record of them, and they aren’t visible to the naked eye like an aircraft or ship (both of which could likely even be located by name on an Internet transponder app). While a defendant’s bank and investment accounts might be subject to a Mareva injunction, and the defendant might be compelled to disclose accounts, it can be difficult to know whether a defendant is lying about the extent of accounts, especially for off-shore accounts where separate court orders might be needed in the various jurisdictions in which those assets reside.

The Mareva injunction resolves business disputes by enabling a creditor to tie up a debtor’s assets, either preserving them while a litigation or arbitration process is pursued, or forcing an early settlement so that the debtor can regain use of the assets.

WHAT IS AN ANTON PILLER ORDER & HOW CAN IT RESOLVE A BUSINESS DISPUTE?

The Anton Piller order is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a civil search warrant, but completely unlike a search warrant issued under the Criminal Code or other federal or provincial legislation, the Anton Piller order does not authorize forcible entry into premises to seek out evidence supporting a party’s civil case, but rather only requires that permission be granted to enter during normal working hours, that a supervising solicitor be present, and most importantly that a substantial risk of destruction of evidence exists justifying the circumventing of the normal civil litigation rules of discovery where parties voluntarily produce relevant documents and can pose questions to each others’ witnesses about the existence of documents.

The Anton Piller order can resolve a business dispute by helping a party learn definitively whether an opposing or third party is in possession of evidence relevant to the dispute, including where assets related to the dispute may be located. The evidence could then be used to force a settlement to the dispute, or to present an overwhelming case to the Court in favour of whichever party obtained the evidence.

HOW MUCH DO LEGAL FEES FOR BUSINESS LITIGATION OR DISPUTE RESOLUTION COST?

Most business litigation and dispute resolution needs to be billed on an hourly basis, as it is very difficult to estimate in advance how much effort will be required to see a matter through to a successful conclusion for a client. Effort is always driven by the degree of opposition from the opposing party, and the complexity of the matter. Unlike personal legal fees, business legal fees are at least tax deductible, but can become considerable where business disputes become very contentious. You should always consider in advance of starting business litigation whether you are likely to recover more money or gain more of a benefit than the legal fees you’ll likely expend.

For Small Claims Court, typically tens of thousands of dollars should be in dispute to ensure your legal fees don’t exceed the amount you are fighting over. However, in Ontario the maximum amount you can recover in Small Claims Court is $35,000.

For Superior Court, typically hundreds of thousands of dollars should be in dispute to make the cost of legal fees worth it. There are some non-monetary disputes where a simpler Civil Application which largely proceeds on a written record without discoveries leading to a trial could be viable to significantly save on costs, however if you are seeking monetary damages then a Civil Action will usually be your only options where fees to get to the end of trial will usually exceed $100,000, thus the amount in dispute should considerably exceed that. We always strive to be as efficient and cost-effective as possible in our legal work for clients, however if a Civil Action spends many years in the court system there will inevitably be significant time invested to keep the matter moving towards a successful outcome.

Our Lawyer time is a competitive $450/hours, with our Law Clerks billing at $140/hour, plus HST and disbursements. We seek to either eliminate or minimize any travel charges.

OUR QUALIFICATIONS TO RESOLVE YOUR BUSINESS DISPUTE

The firm’s Senior Barrister Gordon S. Campbell has successfully acted in civil matters in the Federal Court, Federal Court of Appeal, Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Ontario Divisional Court, Court of Appeal for Ontario, the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Ontario Small Claims Court. He holds degrees in common law (LL.B.) and civil law (B.C.L.) from the McGill University Faculty of law as well as a degree in international relations and economics from the University of Toronto (Trinity College). He is the author of four law books published by Thomson Reuters Canada, Les Édition Yvon Blais, and LexisNexis Canada, including Doing Business in Canada, looseleaf (Toronto, LexisNexis Canada, 2023). He served as a Federal Crown Prosecutor throughout Ontario and the Atlantic provinces prosecuting commercial, economic, competition, copyright, bankruptcy, environmental, tax and fraud cases involving large corporations, small and medium enterprises, and individuals.

Gordon’s experience includes resolving international and interprovincial disputes, having worked in every province and territory of Canada and serving as Canada’s Director of E-Business Development with Industry Canada, Canada's Director of Cryptographic Export Control Policy, and as a delegate for Canada to Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, United Nations and World Bank meetings. He practices equally in French or English.

The firm’s Senior Solicitor Matthew MacLean practices corporate, commercial, business and real estate law throughout Ontario, holding degrees in common law (LL.B.) and civil law (LL.L.) from the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law. He compliments Gordon Campbell’s experience, by bringing a practical solicitor’s experience to business and real property transactions, including being able to conduct share and asset purchases or sales, and real estate title transfers in fulfillment of any business dispute settlement agreement. He likewise practices in French and English.

BUSINESS LITIGATION & DISPUTE RESOLUTION