Complex Litigation and Dispute Resolution

We pursue and defend claims for breach of contract, unpaid invoices and disputed performance. Whether you are the party owed money or the party accused of failing to perform, we read the contract, the correspondence and the loss together before anything goes to the other side. Most of these claims settle on a demand letter that already shows the arithmetic.

We recover unpaid invoices, defaulted loans and commercial debt through demand, summary judgment and enforcement. Working from a search of the debtor’s assets and the paper trail behind the debt, we tell the client at the outset whether the money is actually collectable. That answer decides whether a client sues, negotiates a payment schedule, or writes the debt off.

We bring and defend claims where a third party induced a contracting party to break its agreement, or conspired with others to cause economic loss. These claims require proof of intent and coordination, which lives in messages, meeting notes and payment records that sit outside the contract. Where evidence may be lost or altered, we act promptly to preserve the available record.

We represent claimants and defendants in professional negligence claims against accountants, engineers, consultants and other advisers. We retain the expert evidence that establishes the standard of care and the loss it caused, and we retain it while we are still building the file, months before any hearing. The resulting evidence provides a disciplined foundation for negotiation, expert review and trial.

We file certificates of pending litigation to protect an interest in land, and apply to cancel them where no interest exists. A claimant needs the charge registered before the property moves, and an owner needs it off title before a sale or refinancing collapses. A CPL secures an interest in land under the Land Title Act, and it will not support an ordinary debt claim.

We resolve disputes over the location, scope and permitted use of an easement or statutory right of way. The registered instrument rarely settles the argument on its own, because decades of actual use by both properties bear on what the right now permits. We read the instrument against the survey and the history of use, then take a position the neighbouring owner has to meet.

We litigate boundary and encroachment disputes where the survey and the occupation on the ground disagree. Working from the survey and section 36 of the Property Law Act, we identify whether the client should seek an easement, title to the strip, or removal of the structure. Adverse possession does not run against registered title in British Columbia, so that choice is the whole case.

We represent buyers and sellers when a transaction collapses over a deposit, an unmet condition or a party who will not complete. Whether the client wants the property or the deposit, the contract of purchase and sale governs, as do the days following the failed completion date. We move within days, since an order forcing completion is harder to obtain once the seller has resold.

We apply for Mareva injunctions to freeze assets before judgment, and respond to them for parties subject to one. The court requires a strong case on the merits, evidence of a real risk the assets will move, and the applicant’s undertaking to pay damages if the order proves wrong. We assemble those three on an urgent timetable, and build to hold on the return date.

We obtain Anton Piller orders to preserve evidence a defendant would otherwise destroy once a claim becomes known. We meet the strict evidentiary threshold these orders carry and work with the independent supervising solicitor the court appoints to execute them. Our aim is a search that survives review, since the court sets aside an order executed badly and the evidence goes with it.

We advance and defend oppression applications under section 227 of BC’s Business Corporations Act. Reading the shareholders’ agreement, the minute book and what the parties promised each other at the outset, we identify the expectation at the centre of the complaint. The section reaches conduct that is oppressive or unfairly prejudicial, and the court can order one shareholder to buy out another.

We resolve disputes over dissolution, buyout value and the accounting of partnership assets and profits. A departing partner needs the business valued as of a defensible date, and a continuing partner needs the business to keep trading while that happens. We work from the partnership agreement where one exists and from BC’s Partnership Act where it does not, and we appear for either side.

We defend directors and officers against personal liability claims, and advise boards on the exposure a decision creates before they take it. Two questions decide these files, what the statutory defences under the Business Corporations Act cover and what the directors’ and officers’ policy responds to. Boards that answer them in advance are in a better position than boards that answer them afterwards.

We act for investors and issuers in disputes over misrepresentation in an offering, misuse of invested funds and failed private placements. These files turn on documentary reconstruction more than on legal argument, since the money has usually moved several times before anyone complains. We work with forensic accountants to trace it and to quantify what the investor actually lost.

We protect people and businesses targeted by defamatory posts, fabricated reviews and anonymous accounts. We identify the poster where the platform’s records allow it, issue takedown demands, and sue where the author or the host will not resolve the matter. Our aim is the fastest removal the facts support, since a post that stays up keeps republishing itself in search results.

We pursue and defend claims over false statements about a business or its products. A claimant needs the commercial loss quantified, and a defendant needs to know whether the statement addressed a matter of public interest. That question shapes both sides, because BC’s Protection of Public Participation Act lets a defendant apply to dismiss the claim and halts the proceeding until a judge rules.

We argue appeals in the Court of Appeal for British Columbia, whether the client is challenging a judgment or defending one. The appeal turns on the trial record and on an identifiable error of law, not on a second chance to argue the facts. We give a candid view of the prospects before the client commits, and say when the record will not support one.

We enforce judgments against debtors who will not pay, through garnishment, writs of seizure and sale, and examination under oath. Working from an asset search instead of a standard sequence of steps, we select the route most likely to produce money. A local judgment stays enforceable for ten years under the Limitation Act, so a debtor without assets now may still be worth pursuing later.

We represent claimants and respondents in domestic and international arbitration, including proceedings administered by the Vancouver International Arbitration Centre. Arbitration may offer greater procedural flexibility and privacy than conventional court proceedings, depending on the governing agreement, applicable rules and circumstances of the dispute. We advise clients on the selection or appointment of arbitrators with experience relevant to the legal, commercial or technical issues in dispute.