Dispatches from the Middle
Frontline insights on mediation, reform and resolution
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· 4 min read
Seatbelt Defences and Settlement Value: Why a Small Percentage Can Move the Needle
Here’s how the issue often surfaces in discovery, in the clipped cadence of transcripted Q-and-A:
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· 6 min read
Driving Uninsured: Can You Sue?
I wrote this after a mediation that turned on a hard truth.
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· 5 min read
REVIEW: The Trial Advocate as Storyteller: Discipline Over Drama
The opening chapter of Litigation and Administrative Advocacy: The Art and Science of Persuasion—“The Trial Advocate as Storyteller,” by The Honourable Todd L. Archibald…
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· 10 min read
Untangling Successive Accidents and Indivisible Injuries: A Practical Guide for Ontario Litigators
Most blogs take me a few hours. Others days or weeks. This one has been brewing for months, as I have struggled to untangle…
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· 4 min read
When Subway Doors Close: What the Law Expects from Riders and Transit Agencies
A crowded platform. Chimes sound. Amber lights flash. A rider steps forward as the doors begin to close, is pinched, stumbles, and goes down…
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· 4 min read
Executor Misconduct or Just Delay? How courts distinguish inefficiency from breach of duty
“This case provides a good argument for leaving one’s testamentary estate to pets or strangers”.
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· 5 min read
Jury Questions, Causation, and Successive Accidents: Lessons from Meldazy v. Nassar (2025 ONCA 590)
The Ontario Court of Appeal’s decision in Meldazy v. Nassar (2025 ONCA 590)[1] provides a careful look at how trial judges manage jury questions,…
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· 7 min read
The Thin Skull Meets the Crumbling Skull: Mediation Strategies for Chronic-Pain Litigation
Introduction
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· 6 min read
Pierringer Agreements in the Wake of Cadieux: Lessons for Counsel and Mediators
At a recent mediation, one defendant proposed a Pierringer agreement (often misspelled “Perringer”) with the plaintiff to cleanly resolve its exposure and exit, leaving…
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· 7 min read
A Primer in CAT Threshold: Where Case Law is Heading in Catastrophic Impairment Designations
When in practice, my team succeeded in achieving catastrophic impairment designations for some of my most seriously injured clients, and each success demanded mastery…
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· 8 min read
Private vs. Judicial Mediation: The Complicated Art of Resolution
“I have called you together so we can resolve your indifferences.”