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This week, we are revisiting a three-blog-post series about planning for diminishing capacity. Diminishing capacity is a very complex topic. It may happen quickly or be a long, slow decline in the ability to make effective decisions. The risks can be devastating, impacting a person’s health and financial well-being. Recent research suggests that certain unusual behaviours in managing finances could be an early warning sign of pre-dementia or dementia. In….

As is often the case in civil litigation proceedings, estate and trust litigation relies on expert evidence.  This blog will lay out the general legal framework when it comes to engaging an expert and admitting expert evidence at trial. As an overview, case law collectively establishes that: Expert evidence must be independent, necessary, and properly confined in scope. Counsel may properly interact with experts but must not compromise their independence…..

While litigants are generally entitled to choose at first instance where they commence a legal proceeding, litigants should make sure that the chosen venue has a rational connection to the matters at issue in the proceeding. Otherwise, there is a risk that the judge hearing the matter will transfer the proceeding to an alternative, more appropriate venue, as was the case in Gallant v Rowsell. In Gallant v Rowsell, the….

In a previous blog post, I discussed the importance of the minimal evidentiary threshold in will challenges. Notably, when document discovery is sought in a will challenge, the moving party must substantiate the release of a deceased person’s personal information, such as medical records and solicitors’ files. The minimal evidentiary threshold protects a deceased person’s privacy and deters disgruntled beneficiaries from commencing fishing expeditions into the deceased’s affairs simply because….