I missed blogging last week for what I think was a very good reason: I am on the planing committee for a golf tournament for the Barrie Women and Children's Shelter. This was the third annual tournament, but we still needed to be planning since September of last year,...
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cesia@wall-arm.ca
Getting your signing hand ready
My first contact with clients is generally over the phone, when they call to retain me. Usually in the course of that phone call, they will ask when they need to come in to sign. Generally, you will sign the paperwork with your lawyer one to three days prior to...
Donate your organs via Facebook
With all the hubbub about Facebook's IPO last week, I thought I would write about something Facebook-related, namely donating your organs. Seriously. Facebook users in the US and UK can now use a new feature to sign up, via Facebook, with their local organ-donor...
Slowing the market
The Globe and Mail published this article a couple of months ago on the possible real estate bubble in Canada. Essentially, the author and those she spoke with raised concerns about the overall debt load of Canadians, and our ability to hold on to our homes when...
Regulating estates lawyers
I happened across this article in IFA Online the other day about regulation of estates lawyers in the UK. Essentially, their governing body has proposed making will drafting a "reserved" area of practice, so that only those lawyers with special expertise (and...
Buyer be aware
I often read Mark Weisleder's posts on the Moneyville website. This one in particular caught my attention: a realtor claimed an $11,000.00 commission from a couple after they signed a buyer agency agreement with him and then subsequently purchased a home through a...
Fun facts
Larry Bodine posted this article a few days ago over at the JDSupra blog called "Ten Things You Don’t Know About Estate Planning." Among the more unusual: the first will dates back to ancient Egypt, and involved Uah leaving all to his wife, Teta; the record for the...
Survey says
Someone asked me an interesting question the other day: what happens if there is a mistake in the survey and I don't find out until after closing? 20 years ago, when you bought property in Ontario, your lawyer would have done a full certification of title. There would...
An update on the Rasouli case
Last summer, I blogged about Hassan Rasouli, who had been in a near-vegetative state since contracting an infection after surgery in October 2010. His doctors had intended to remove life support against the wishes of his wife, who was named as his attorney in Mr....
Biting the hand that feeds you
Just before the end of last year, Moneyville reported on an agent who sued her former clients after a deal went bad. Essentially, the issue became the cost of staging the house when the owners took their home off the market because they could not sell it for a price...