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Serious insight for serious situations.

Serious insight for serious situations.

Lessons from Lance

I’ve been following the news reports over the last few weeks covering the story of disgraced cyclist, Lance Armstrong.I’m struck by several things: (1) that Lance continues to admit no wrongdoing, despite mounting evidence of his participation in doping; and (2) the distinctions that are being drawn between sports personalities like Tiger Woods and Kobe

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Ontario jury awards former Walmart employee $1.46 million for constructive dismissal

Setting a new “high-water mark” for damages in constructive dismissal cases in Ontario, a jury in Windsor, Ontario has awarded a former Walmart employee $1.46 million in damages, after finding that she was constructively dismissed. In delivering its verdict on October 10, 2012, the jury concluded that the employee had suffered abusive treatment, including mental

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Employee information and social media part two: What about mitigation efforts?

In the last month, two personal injury cases have crossed my desk that have left me wondering how aggressively employers and their lawyers will or should incorporate social media searches to examine a terminated employee’s mitigation efforts.Perhaps this is already happening. In both cases, the social media profiles of plaintiffs who claimed they were injured

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Employee dismissals and terminations: Up in the air…

…is where I was yesterday, returning from vacation. As I was flying, I had the opportunity to catch up on some films that I hadn’t seen, including the Academy Award nominated film, “Up in the Air”. For those of you not months behind in your film watching like me, you will know this is the

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Wrongful dismissal: A procedural sign of things to come?

An interesting case crossed my desk this week. It was the wrongful dismissal case of Whiteman v. Eastern Lift Truck Inc. 183 A.C.W.S. (3d) 87. The case was recently decided by Mr. Justice Ray of the Superior Court of Justice. What jumped out at me was how efficiently the plaintiff and his counsel made use

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Just ‘fess up!

I was thinking this past week about the FIFA world cup qualifying match between France and Ireland. If you haven’t heard, France won after their captain allegedly handled the ball, resulting in the winning goal. Irish fans were irate that the captain of the French team did not admit his alleged violation. In the workplace,

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Notice not always proportionate to service in case of short service employee

A recent case involving the termination of a short service employee, illustrates a principle that is often difficult for employers to accept.  A terminated employee’s entitlement to reasonable notice may not always be proportionate to his or her notice. The case in point is Gingerich v. Kobe Sportswear Inc. (unreported, January 25, 2008).  Here, Mr.

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