Dispatches from the Middle
Frontline insights on mediation, reform and resolution
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· 13 min read
The Road Less Insured: When the Snow Contract, Certificate and Policy Don’t Line Up
A winter slip-and-fall claim can look deceptively straightforward. The plaintiff sues the owner or property manager. The owner points to the winter maintenance contractor.…
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· 12 min read
The CAT Came Back: Can Accident Benefit Assessment Costs Be Recovered in Tort
A recent mediation put an increasingly familiar question squarely on the table. The plaintiff had incurred substantial expenses obtaining catastrophic impairment assessments in the…
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· 16 min read
Is the Math Mathing? Proving Past Income Loss
Past income loss has always struck me as one of the apparently simpler parts of a personal injury claim. The plaintiff earned a certain…
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· 17 min read
Material Change In Risk: When The Risk The Insurer Agreed To Insure Becomes Something Else
Insurance is fundamentally about risk. An insurer agrees to assume a particular risk, based upon what it knows about that risk, and sets its…
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· 1 min read
It’s Done: Volume Two Is Here!
For those who have been following Dispatches from the Middle, I’m very pleased to say that Volume Two is now published.
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· 6 min read
A First Look at Dispatches From The Middle, Volume Two: Fault
Over the past several months, I have been assembling the second volume of Dispatches From The Middle.
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· 17 min read
When the Legislature Picks a Side: Statutory Fault and Modified Liability
Most of the law of fault begins with a familiar question: did the defendant act as a reasonable person would have acted in the…
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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.”
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· 17 min read
Understanding Stare Decisis: Why Yesterday's Decisions Decide Today's Cases
The Rule That Holds the Legal System Together
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· 9 min read
Under Pressure: Does Toronto Have Enough Experienced Mediators?
For some time, I have wondered whether there is a mismatch developing in Toronto’s civil justice system.
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· 19 min read
Clean Sweep: How Courts Decide Supermarket Slip and Fall Cases
More Than a Puddle on the Floor
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· 17 min read
The Art of the Mediation Opening: The Defence Perspective
What I Have Learned After Watching Hundreds of Them