We salute Fleury & Comery, LLP!
While recently doing a Google search www.fleurycom.on.ca/html/lawyers.html for some unknown reason (Wasn't looking for anything related to the law?) turned up on
the list.Edward R. Fleury, Q.C.
Gregory E. McConnell, M.A., LL.B.
Stephen P. Fleury, B. Sc., LL.B.
Peter Sialtsis, B.B. A., B.A., LL.B.
EDWARD R. FLEURY, Q.C.Ed founded this practice in 1957 after his call to the bar that year. Some of his first and enduring clients were patrons of his father’s tavern business at the old Glen Eagle Hotel, where Ed himself had worked part time to support himself in law school.
While initially Ed took on any kind of case, he quickly began to specialize in real estate and corporate/commercial matters after Bill Comery (now retired) became his partner in the firm in 1960.
Ed has been active in local affairs over the years, including a term as Chairman of the Scarborough Centenary Hospital where he remains an active board member. He is also an avid golfer and is a long standing member and former president of the Scarborough Golf Club. Ed’s favourite kind of case involves municipal and administrative matters including appeals to tribunals such as the Ontario Municipal Board and the Assessment Appeal Board.
Fleury, Comery, LLP 215 Morrish Road, Suite 104, Scarborough, Ontario, M1C 1E9 Office: (416) 282-5754 Fax: (416) 282-9906 E-Mail: thefirm@fleurcom.on.ca
This site had a very good feel about it so we decided to spend a few minutes navigating it. The firm deserves a Public Service Award! If you go to the Client Memos link at the top of their home page, 39 topics written in layman's language appear:
CLIENT MEMOS
We have the following client memoranda available at this time. A new memo is issued about once every two months, sometimes more frequently. We value your suggestions on topics that could be appropriately treated in this format.
1. New Child Support Regime
2. What is 'Quality in Legal Service?
3. New Simplified Procedure
4. Are Lawyers 'Deal Deal-Killers?'
5. There's Been a Death in the Family: What Do I Do?
6. Your Small Claims Court Claim
7. Fees for Permanent Resident Card Applications
8. Examination for Discovery
9. Offers to Settle - updated 2004
10. Your Will
11. Your Power of Attorney
12. What is Creativity for Lawyers: - E.R. Fleury3. Are Lawyers Less Ethical Than Other People?
14. Joint Ownership: Is It Good Estate Planning?
15. A Second Marriage: Some Things to Consider16. How Much Does It Cost For a Simple Divorce?
17. The Lawyers at Cleury, Comery
18. Anatomy of a Personal Injury Case
19. Should I Incorporater My Business?20. Your Motor Vehicle Accident Claim
21. Is Reconciliation Possible in Your Case?22. Stationer's Wills - A Recipe for Estate Litigation
23. Issues Under the Child Support Guidelines24. Construction Liens: A Summary of the Procedure
25. Construction Liens: Some Issues26. Our Obligations Under New "Money Laundering" Legislation
27. Property Division on Marriage Breakdown28. The Difficult Client
29. Affidavits, Statutory Declarations & Declarations30. Some Typical Affidavits & Statutory Declarations
31. Closing Matters - Residential House Purchase - W.F. Comery32. Closing Matters - Residential House Sale
33. Closing Matters - Condominium Purchase34. Duties of Estate Trustee
35. Bill 198 - An Act to Implement Budget Measures36. Common Issues in Estate Litigation
37. Financial Productions in Matrimonial Cases38. Auto Insurance Updatre - No More "DACS"
39. Your Affidavit DocumentsWe randomly selected and reproduced (below) 8. Examination for Discovery and 39. Your Affidavit Documents because they looked interesting.
It's obvious Mr. Fleury is not only an outstanding attorney but a superb educator as well.
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
Distribution List: thefirm@fleurcom.on.ca/theverdict@ctv.ca/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8. EXAMINATION FOR DISCOVERY
Each side to a law suit has the right to take the discovery deposition of the opposing party. This memorandum is intended as a quick orientation to the process in anticipation of your own attendance for discovery by the opposing party.
PROCEDURE
The opposing party has served on us an appointment which requires you to appear at a specified time and place and give your testimony, under oath, which testimony is taken down by a court reporter and typed out for future use in the lawsuit.
RULES OF EVIDENCE
The basic rule of evidence is that questions asked must be relevant to the case. Most of the evidentiary objections available at trial are not available on discovery. I attend with you to ensure that the opposing counsel's questions are relevant, but basically you do the talking in answer to his questions.
PURPOSE OF DISCOVERY
Opposing counsel wants to find out what our case is, and hopefully obtain admissions which will assist his case. Opposing counsel also takes this opportunity to meet you and gain an impression of your strengths and weaknesses as a witness at trial. It is important that you make a good impression upon opposing counsel and his client and you should appear at discovery dressed as you would expect to dress if you were actually going to court to appear before a jury.
PREPARATION
If your action is a personal injury action, you should come prepared to describe in a very clear and unambiguous way all of your injuries from head to toe, all of your symptoms, and the length of time which your symptoms and injuries lasted. In addition you should have all the facts and figures with respect to your time lost from work, the amount of wages lost, your Doctors' bills, your hospital bills and all other monetary damages. For this purpose you should review very carefully any medical reports which I have sent you.
YOUR ANSWERS
The main thing is to listen carefully to the question asked. The opposing counsel is entitled to a full and reasonable answer to each of his questions. He is not entitled to anything more, and extra "explanations", "comments", or "opinions" are to be avoided.
HOW TO ACT WHILE GIVING EVIDENCE
1. Tell the Truth
2. Never lose your temper.
3. Speak slowly and clearly.
4. If you don't understand the question, ask that it be explained.
5. Answer all questions directly, giving concise answers to the questions, and STOP TALKING.
6. Stick to the facts and testify to only that which you personally know.
7. Do not magnify your losses. Do not exaggerate.
8. Testify only to "basic facts" and do not attempt to give opinions.................unless you have good reason for knowing such matters.
9. If you don't know, admit it. Some witnesses think they should have an answer for every question asked. You cannot know all of the facts and you do yourself a disservice if you attempt to testify to facts with which you are not acquainted. It is IMPERATIVE that you be HONEST and STRAIGHTFORWARD in your testimony.
10. It is not our purpose to give the opposing party any more information than we have to. This is no time to convince the other side of the value of your case. We will do that at another time.
11. Don't guess or estimate time, speed, or distance unless you are sure that the estimate is correct, and then make certain that when you answer that you state that this is your estimate.
12. Many cases are lost because the witness tries to hide something. Tell the whole truth on these depositions.
13. If we object to a question, stop talking and we will instruct you after we object to either answer the question or not to answer it.
14. After the depositions are over, do not discuss anything in the presence of the opposing lawyers or the reporter.
15. Perhaps the most important aspect of your lawsuit is YOU and the appearance you make. If you give the appearance of earnestness, fairness, and honesty, and if in giving your discovery deposition you keep in mind the suggestions herein made, you will be taking a great stride toward successful and satisfactory completion of the litigation in which you are involved. WHAT YOU DO at the deposition can help you or hurt you depending upon your attitude, truthfulness, and appearance.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
39. YOUR AFFIDAVIT OF DOCUMENTS
In all civil legal proceedings there is a requirement to exchange relevant documents. In most courts, this involves delivering sworn Affidavits of Documents. The purpose of this memo is to emphasize the crucial importance of doing this properly.
FORM OF AFFIDAVIT OF DOCUMENTS
Form 30A used in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice is the most common format for the Affidavit of Documents. It is divided into three parts, or “Schedules:”
A: documents you have and will produce
B: documents you have, but object to produce
C: documents you no longer have
Under the Simplified Procedure (see memo#3) there is a further Schedule D, being a list of persons with knowledge of the matters raised in the proceeding. In the Affidavit, you certify that you have never had any other relevant documents in your possession, control, or power - a sworn statement that could haunt you at trial if incorrect. In Small Claims Court, where an Affidavit is not required, nevertheless all trial documents are required to be produced to the other side at least 14 days before trial.
WHEN IS IT TO BE DELIVERED?
The Rules of Civil Procedure technically require an Affidavit of Documents to be delivered “within ten days after the close of pleadings”, i.e. ten days after the last Claim or Defence has been served. Counsel generally allow an indulgence for a reasonable time thereafter. You cannot, however, require the attendance of the opposite party on examination for discovery if you have not served your Affidavit of Documents. If new documents are produced before trial, e.g. an up-to-date medical opinion letter, you must either amend your Affidavit or deliver a supplementary one.
INSPECTION AND PRODUCTION OF DOCUMENTS
You must allow the opposite party the right to inspect the documents in Schedule A, and it is the usual practice to serve a book containing copies of these documents when serving the Affidavit.
PRIVILEGED DOCUMENTS
Schedule B requires you to list any privileged documents, such as your lawyer’s investigation file, and letters between us. if such documents are not described adequately, the other side can ask for a court order requiring more specificity - and the costs of such a proceeding are going to be payable by you.
WHAT ARE “DOCUMENTS?”
Basically, anything which could be used at trial to support either side’s case, that is not oral testimony, is a document. Photos, maps, accounts, and computer data are documents.
ELECTRONIC DATA
Data, being a “document” must be listed. This rather new kind of production must be taken very seriously. If you have relevant accounting data, E-mails, or word processed documents on you computer, you must conserve that evidence and allow inspection of it. It is becoming common to look at the “metadata”, being the hidden information relating to a computer document, such as its creator and date of creation. E-mails, for example, have a header of information, not usually seen. We should discuss how to conserve electronic evidence immediately upon our retainer.
PENALTIES FOR FAILURE TO DISCLOSE
If you want to use documents at trial, you had better include them in your Affidavit. The trial judge is not likely to allow you to use them, or, if he does, he will probably assess a costs penalty. If you fail to produce documents that are known to be available, the trial judge will presume the content was against your case. Under the Simplified Procedure, you cannot call a witness you have not listed in Schedule D - including yourself!
HELP US - AND REDUCE YOUR LEGAL COSTS
We ask our clients to give us THE ORIGINAL COPY of any relevant documents as soon as we are retained. Please put them in good order (chronological is usually sensible), to reduce our time spent and, accordingly, your legal bill. Try to mount bits of paper, like receipts or photos, on a clean 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper for ease of photocopying. A descriptive list and numbered tabs are also helpful. For E-mails, we suggest you save each e-mail to a separate printable file, then edit and print each message on a separate piece of paper, deleting the extraneous “original message” text from replies; but do preserve the data in its original format on the computer. Above all, please consider the issues and deliver to us ALL possibly relevant documents.
posted by Clare L. Pieuk at 9:08 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home