Legalese

Were you aware that a large portion of claims made to WSIB by workers who have experienced sexual harassment at work are being denied? WSIB defines harassment as “engaging in a course of vexatious comment or conduct against a worker, including...

Sadly, many of the people who we help at The Legal Clinic have been the victims of a violent crime either as an adult or as a child. Many victims are not aware that they can apply to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board for some compensation for...

Are you aware  that while every person working in Canada must have a Social Insurance Number (SIN), the federal government is discontinuing production of the plastic SIN card? As of April 1, 2014, Service Canada will begin issuing social insurance...

Last year Rural Legal Services amalgamated with the Lanark, Leeds and Grenville Legal Clinic to form The Legal Clinic (TLC). As a community legal clinic, TLC receives funding from Legal Aid Ontario to provide a range of free legal services to the...

Legal Aid Ontario (LAO) offers a variety of legal services for low income residents of Ontario including: Duty counsel services located at Family or Criminal court and at the Landlord and Tenant Board A Legal Aid Certificate program that covers the...

by Susan Irwin, Lawyer/Executive Director Change is one of life’s few certainties. It applies equally to individuals and to organizations, although in the business context it is often described as “innovation” or “transformation”. Within...

  Legalese is a column of general information and opinion on legal topics by the lawyers of Rural Legal Services, Box 359, Sharbot Lake, ON, K0H 2P0, 613-279-3252, or 1-888-777-8916. This column is not intended to provide legal advice. You should...

By Anne-Marie Langan, Staff Lawyer

In small rural communities where it may be difficult to find full time local employment, disabled workers often do not request accommodation for their disability for fear it will put their employment at risk. This is especially true for people who...

  Community Legal Education Ontario produces a monthly email bulletin called On the Radar. This month's On the Radar, reproduced for Legalese, looks at some of the laws that apply when the police decide to stop people on the street and question...

By Anne-Marie Langan, staff lawyer,  Rural Legal Services

Lately Rural Legal Services has had a rash of complaints from seniors, clients with disabilities and persons on a fixed income, about their Hydro Bills. These complaints have included: Usage has been grossly underestimated for months and then the...

  This column is brought to you by Community Law School (Sarnia-Lambton) Inc., and Community Legal Services and Pro Bono Students Canada at Western University, with funding support from the Law Foundation of Ontario. It provides legal information...

  It is probably safe to say that telephone fraud was not what Alexander Graham Bell had in mind when he pioneered the telephone in the 1870s. Unfortunately, modern-day telephone scammers defraud consumers out of millions of dollars annually. We...

  The information in this column was provided by Community Legal Education Ontario in its monthly email alert “On the Radar” Many of us look forward to the long weekend in May as the "unofficial" beginning of the summer. In anticipation of...

  This column is brought to you by Community Law School (Sarnia-Lambton) Inc., and Community Legal Services and Pro Bono Students Canada at Western University, with funding support from the Law Foundation of Ontario. It provides legal information...

  Have you experienced assault? Have you ever been criminally harassed? Did you experience abuse as a child? Have you been the victim of domestic violence? If the answer is yes to these questions or if you have been the victim of another violent...

Consumers facing financial difficulty who are unable to obtain credit from a bank or other conventional lender often resort to using the services of a pay day lender. Here is some information you should know when dealing with a pay day lender. What...

Every day we make decisions that affect our personal health and financial well-being. Having the capacity to make decisions means that we are able to understand information needed to make a decision and to appreciate the consequences of making or...

Home renovation projects can be long and costly. While consumers are protected by numerous provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 (CPA), contractors are largely unregulated, allowing unscrupulous contractors to take advantage of consumers....

If you are thinking about renting a place to live, or becoming a landlord, you need to be informed about the law. The Residential Tenancies Act (Act) is a law that governs the relationship between residential landlords and tenants in Ontario. It...

Have you been greeted at your door by a sales agent and a promise: energy savings in exchange for your signature? These individuals represent “energy re-billers”—companies that sell you energy, often using deceptive high-pressure tactics and...

If you are working in Ontario and your employer owes you money, such as overtime pay, vacation pay, or termination pay, you can file a claim with the Ontario Ministry of Labour (Ministry) under the Employment Standards Act. The deadline to make a...

[For more than 2 decades Rural Legal Services (RLS) has written Legalese, a legal information column kindly published by the Frontenac News. Following the recognition of our columns by the Law Foundation of Ontario as an effective means of...

The era of buyer beware has largely passed when purchasing goods or services from a seller. While a healthy scepticism is always good for your own protection, strong legislation has been passed over the last few decades to regulate certain...

by Susan Irwin, Lawyer/Executive Director The best reason for making a Will is to avoid what happens if you die without one, or "intestate". By not having a Will you give up the right to choose your beneficiaries (i.e. who will inherit your...

[For more than 2 decades Rural Legal Services (RLS) has written Legalese, a legal information column kindly published by the Frontenac News. It has recently been recognized by our colleagues in the Legal Advocacy Regional Network (LEARN) of which...

by Susan Irwin, Lawyer/Executive Director When filing your income tax return for 2011 you may have an unpleasant surprise if you are a low income person expecting a lump sum tax refund. In previous years, eligible taxpayers could count on a lump-sum...

[For more than 2 decades Rural Legal Services (RLS) has written Legalese, a legal information column kindly published by the Frontenac News. It has recently been recognized by our colleagues in the Legal Advocacy Regional Network (LEARN) of which...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services The breadth of information available at our fingertips is truly amazing and exciting. It can also be our biggest challenge! With so much information just a click away on the...

  Legalese is a column of general information and opinion on legal topics by the lawyers of Rural Legal Services, Box 359, Sharbot Lake, ON, K0H2P0, 613-279-3252, or 1-888-777-8916. This column is not intended to provide legal advice. You should...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services

2011 was not a prolific year for our Legalese Column. Some of you may have noticed its absence and may even have wondered if we were still in business. I can assure you that we are and that we will strive to have more legal information columns...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services

There’s nothing like a long winter followed by a long, wet, spring, to remind homeowners about those repairs some realtors have been known to describe as “deferred maintenance” items. Aging houses sooner or later need new steps, or a window or...

Legalese is a column of general information and opinion on legal topics by the lawyers of Rural Legal Services, Box 359, Sharbot Lake, ON, K0H2P0, 613-279-3252, or 1-888-777-8916. This column is not intended to provide legal advice. You should...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services If the Ontario government has its way, the purchase of cigarettes from a road-side “smoke shack” could get a lot more expensive thanks to the recently introduced Supporting...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Teens and alcohol are a cocktail that can lead to more than just the morning after headache and parental indignation. It can lead to legal problems that will persist long after the...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Some of us may suffer from retirement envy with no freedom 55 in sight. Others may thrive in the workforce and want to keep working, while others may have no option but to keep...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services When a landlord rents a house or an apartment, he/she gives up certain rights normally associated with ownership.  Property owners generally assume that they have the right to...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services There are many reasons why people fall behind in their payments, especially in recessionary times, but the debts remain outstanding however good the reason for non-payment....

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services I am often of two minds about the upcoming Holiday Season.The non-lawyer par t of me enjoy Christmas and New Years and all that this special time of year entails, especially getting...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services It is indeed the information age. Information about you is being collected, sorted and stored by numerous governmental and private organizations. Perhaps there isn’t much we can...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services It’s a complicated world and getting more complicated every day. Not a new or terribly profound statement, but it’s a reality that can have an enormous impact on the quality of...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Your hydro bill has just arrived. As usual, it’s a shocker, and there is the long winter ahead. You’re on a fixed income, and even the “equal billing” option leaves you...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services It’s summertime and people are on the move – an increasing number astride ATVs (All Terrain Vehicles). This year, more than a few ATV drivers have reminded me of an old legal...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Drinking and driving is an issue that is squarely on the agenda of the government of Ontario. Although the Province cannot infringe upon the Federal government’s criminal law...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services For most people, just getting through a day at work is hard enough without facing the prospect of harassment or violence on the job. Effective June 15, 2010, workers in Ontario will...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services One of the realities of living in this area is the need for a source of reliable transportation. There are no buses, no taxis, no subways, and except for volunteer drivers, good...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services If you need legal help in Ontario and cannot afford to pay for a lawyer, you may be able to take advantage of one of the programs operated by Legal Aid Ontario (LAO). Whether or not...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Ontarians will begin paying the new Harmonized Sales Tax on July 1st, 2010. It combines the existing sales taxes, the GST (a federal tax of 5%) and the PST (a provincial tax of 8%)...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services (Editor’s note – warning, this column contains some wishful thinking about the outcome of the Olympic men’s hockey tournament) It’s the last period of Canada vs. the USA in...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services The Legal Clinic in Sharbot Lake has been producing a “Legalese” column for more than 20 years. For one reason or another, we sometimes find ourselves looking at our old columns...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services

You can talk to me. What you tell me stays with me. In fact, as a lawyer, I have very little choice in the matter. Every lawyer in Ontario is governed by the Rules of Professional Conduct as set down and enforced by the Law Society of Upper Canada....

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Significant changes are coming to Legal Aid Ontario. The most dramatic changes will be noticed initially by people seeking Legal Aid Certificates to retain lawyers in Criminal or...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services We live in an increasingly complicated world. A world of voice mail with confusing menus rattled off at break neck speed by electronic voices, “self-help” kits and forms that...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Insurance is one of those things that we often don’t think about – until we need it! In fact many of us just tune out when it comes to this topic. After all, there are so many...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services The law is always changing. Each year brings an almost unbelievable onslaught of new legislation, amendments to existing legislation and supporting regulations and, of course, new...

By Susan Irwin, Executive Director / Lawyer, Rural Legal Services Earlier in the week while on route to Kingston I noticed the driver in the adjacent car talking animatedly on his hand-held cell phone. The gentleman was either blissfully unaware...