Law Works is pleased to welcome two articling students to the firm. Gleb Matushansky Gleb graduated with a J.D. degree from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto earlier this year and joined the firm in July. Before law school, Gleb obtained an Honours Bachelor of Administrative Studies degree from York University, where he graduated with a specialization in Marketing. Last summer, Gleb worked as a Research Assistant at the Osgoode Mediation Clinic.
We are pleased to announce that this year again both our firm, Law Works PC, and our principal lawyer, Ben Hanuka, were selected to be listed in the Canadian Lexpert Legal Directory for 2016-2017, as a leading law firm and practitioner in the area of Franchise Law. Listings are based on peer-rankings through annual surveys of experienced lawyers in the relevant practice area across Canada.
On May 18, 2016, Legal Feeds – the official Blog of the Canadian Lawyer and Law Times – quoted Ben Hanuka about a very important new Divisional Court decision (Cozzi v. Heerdegen) relating to lawyers’ fee disputes. In the case, the court held that in regular non-contingency matters, the much backlogged lawyer-client assessment procedure is not mandatory under the Solicitors Act.
In its April 11, 2016, issue, The Toronto Star quoted Ben Hanuka about the risks of court delay to the assessment process of lawyers' accounts. Click here for the full text of the article. In the article, titled, “Challenges to high legal bills delayed by short-staffed office”, Ben commented about the consequences of the backlog beyond delayed justice: …[T]here’s a risk that lawyers who keep experiencing delayed payments because of a clogged assessment system could start demanding money upfront.
In its edition for the week of March 7, 2016, Law Times quoted Ben Hanuka about a recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court relating to court wait times for lawyers’ account assessments. Click here for the full text of the article. In the article, titled, ““Wait times for hearings ‘unacceptably long’: judge”, Ben is quoted about the need for more assessment officers in the court system, rather than allowing law firms to in effect circumvent the assessment process by attempting to bring assessments in front of judges.