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Robert Fleming Lawyers

Robert Fleming Lawyers

Litigation

  • EXPERTISE
    • Commercial Litigation
    • Cross Border / International Disputes
    • Fraud and Conspiracy
    • Intellectual Property
    • Internet and Search Engines
    • Employment, Confidential Information, and Business Opportunities
    • Shareholder Disputes
    • Enforcing Insurance Policies
    • International Asset Recovery
    • Business and Legal Strategy Consulting
  • OUR APPROACH
  • WORK HERE
  • MEET OUR TEAM
  • GET IN TOUCH
  • EXPERTISE
    • Commercial Litigation
    • Cross Border / International Disputes
    • Fraud and Conspiracy
    • Intellectual Property
    • Internet and Search Engines
    • Employment, Confidential Information, and Business Opportunities
    • Shareholder Disputes
    • Enforcing Insurance Policies
    • International Asset Recovery
    • Business and Legal Strategy Consulting
  • OUR APPROACH
  • WORK HERE
  • MEET OUR TEAM
  • GET IN TOUCH
  • CONTACT

    t + 1 604 682-1659
    f + 1 604 568-8548

    EMAIL

    info@fleminglawyer.com

    ADDRESS

    520 - 925 West Georgia
    Vancouver V6C 3L2

Uncategorized

Employment, Confidential Information, and Business Opportunities

December 21, 2021 by Liz

Who does company information and business opportunities belong to?

Companies, partners, shareholders, employees. Any of them may have a claim to the confidential information or opportunities of a business, depending on the circumstances.

The law here is an amalgam of employment obligations, the duty of confidence, fiduciary duties, the law of invention, an individual’s right to pursue their chosen profession, and the common law presumption that free commerce should be encouraged.

If you have a question about how any of this might apply to you or your business, you are very welcome to get in touch.

Connect

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Commercial Litigation

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

We build an economic model for every case

Litigation decisions should be made with the same economic discipline as any other business decision. We build an economic model for every case, incorporating the cost, chance of success, and likely recovery.

We want to understand your busines as well as you do. Our preference is to collaborate with our clients and use business strategy tools – not just legal tools – to find the best solution to any problem.

Business Disputes

We act on a wide range of business disputes, many of which are international:

  • Shareholder and partnership disputes
  • Joint venture, and sale of business disputes
  • Jurisdiction disputes and enforcement of foreign judgments
  • Engineering disputes
  • Contract disputes
  • Franchise disputes
  • Strata corporation disputes
  • Commercial leasing disputes
  • Debt collection, including international asset recovery
  • Employment, books of business, trade secrets, and wrongful dismissal
  • Application of family law to businesses and other non-family members
  • Product liability

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Enforcing Insurance Policies

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

Suing insurance companies

We all buy insurance to protect ourselves against risks, but insurance companies often deny legitimate claims.

We enforce all kinds of policies where you have been sued but your insurer refuses to help you.

IN MEMORIAM

Neo Tuytel

Neo joined our firm in early 2019, and then tragically died of a heart attack on May 6, 2019. He was only 62 and fit as a fiddle — so this was all very unfair. Neo was an absolute pleasure to have around and we were looking forward to many years of working together. He had national reputation as an authority on insurance coverage and went to the Supreme Court of Canada three times on insurance cases: Family Insurance v. Lombard, 2002 SCC 38 , Shafron v. KRG Insurance Brokers, 2009 SCC 6, and Progressive Homes v. Lombard, 2010 SCC 33.

We were Neo’s succession plan but no one was expecting that he would pass the torch so soon. We try to bring the same dedication and thoroughness to our clients’ insurance cases as Neo did.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Cross Border / International Disputes

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

We think globally.

Business is global, so lawyers are not effective unless they can act across borders.

We have business or legal experience in more than twenty countries around the world. We are members of IR Global and have a network of investigators and law firms around the world so we can obtain reliable information and assistance, anywhere in the world.

Canadian courts have jurisdiction over anyone who has a real and substantial connection with Canada.

In Google v. Equustek we obtained an order directing Google to stop displaying – on Google’s search results all over the world – websites selling products made with stolen trade secrets. And in Equustek v. Jack we argued the first ever ex parte appeal in the BC Court of Appeal – on a global asset freezing application with parallel asset freezing proceedings in France.

Related Cases

Lambda Solutions v. Moodle

Plaintiff can’t cherry pick Western Australian law, in baroque interjurisdictional strategy
2022 BCSC 2280

Lambda Solutions v. Moodle

No right to put plug-ins on a third party website
2022 BCSC 2280

O’Melveny & Myers LLP v. Tilt Holdings

US law firm cannot recover its fees in BC courts
2021 BCSC 124

Northwestpharmacy.com v. Yates

Panamanian contract to process payments on internet sales of prescription drugs
2017 BCSC 1572

Equustek Solutions Inc. v. Jack

Canadian courts maintain global order against Google, regardless of US court order
2018 BCSC 610

Filed Under: Uncategorized

International Asset Recovery

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

Finding your money, anywhere in the world.

Fraudsters and rogues are hide assets all over the world, and don’t cooperate with the law.
Recovering these assets requires planning, patience, and intense creativity:

  • Applications compelling third parties to disclose information about the rouges
  • Private search warrant applications.
  • Asset freeze applications

We have considerable experience in Canada with these and similar orders, and we rely on a network of lawyers around the world to take action in other countries.

International asset recovery files may involve:

  • Collecting evidence around the world and building teams of lawyers in multiple jurisdictions
  • Coordinating simultaneous court applications in multiple jurisdictions, such as asset freezing (Mareva injunctions), obtaining information (Norwich Pharmacal), or seizing computers (Anton Piller orders)
  • Different standards in different jurisdictions, for the enforcement of foreign court orders, the admissibility of evidence, privilege, and substantive causes of action
  • Foreign criminal proceedings
  • Anti-bribery and anti-money laundering legislation from different jurisdictions
  • Litigation financing

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Intellectual Property

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

Confidential Information. Trade Secrets. Copyright. Patents.

We love technology and our approach to intellectual property cases is the same as our approach to all other claims – we craft our clients’ cases to present them to the court as a compelling story that is clearly on the side of justice.

Just because the law is technical, or the case involves technology, doesn’t mean it has to be complicated. Our job is to understand the details of the law and the technology so we can speak in clear terms and make the case understandable for everyone.

Related Cases

Equustek v. Jack

$11 million for abuse of trade secrets and product names by employee and distributor
2021 BCSC 2126 2020 BCSC 793

Google v. Equustek

Global control of illegal internet content on search results
2017 SCC 34

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Shareholder Disputes

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

Shareholders are entitled to have their reasonable expectations upheld

Minority shareholders can bring oppression claims if they are not treated fairly. These claims are not about strict legal rights but about what is fair in the circumstances, which is measured by the reasonable expectations of the shareholders.

Here are some examples of oppressive conduct of dominant shareholders:

  • Unequal or unfair distribution of profits
  • Failing to provide financial statements, or audited financial statements
  • Failing to hold shareholders’ meetings
  • Treating the company as if it were owned exclusively by the majority
  • Payment of excessive management fees
  • Preferring a dominant shareholder’s interests over the interests of the company
  • Taking unauthorized or secret benefits

We advise on these kinds of claims, as well as:

  • Rights of dissent, plans of arrangement, and “fair value” of shares.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Employment Law

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

We regularly advise both employers and employees on employment law issues, including wrongful dismissal claims, executive terminations, books of business, trade secrets, and non-competition clauses.

Canadian law is generally very favourable to employees, but the economics of litigation are invariably on the side of the employer.

For both employers and employees, resolving a severance or dismissal claim involves comparing the range of damages a court will award with the cost of the litigation required to get there. Because they have more resources, employers always have a stronger bargaining position but in many cases there is also business value for employers in maintaining their reputations by treating all employees fairly.

Our approach to the resolution of employment disputes depends on the balance between these three factors – law, economics, and reputation.

Related Cases

Employment Law

Mackie v. West Coast Engineering Group 2009 BCSC 1775

Employment Law

Granger v. Hudson House Ltd. (unreported BCSC 2002)

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Business and Legal Strategy Consulting

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

Bringing strategy tools into the practice of law

“A lawyer who has not studied economics… is very apt to become a public enemy”

– Brandeis J.

Law schools do not generally teach anything about business, as opposed to business law, so lawyers learn about business legal forms and contracts, but nothing about the non-legal imperatives of running a business, like corporate finance, marketing, or corporate strategy. And many lawyers resist engaging in any topic that goes beyond the four corners of their legal brief (“I only give legal advice”).

This is highly problematic for business, because every legal problem comes within a business context, and lawyers who are not willing or able to understand that context cannot give good advice.

Business clients want to know how much their case will cost, how long it will take, what the risks are, and the probable result. These four basic elements—cost, risk, time, and reward, are the foundation of the financial analysis of any business proposal, and there is no reason why lawyers cannot make reasonably reliable assessments of these — the law is no more uncertain than many projects undertaken by business, and in many cases is substantially more certain.

And in a litigation context the focus of lawyers should not just be on winning their client’s case but on solving the underlying business problems that were the reason clients came to them in the first place.

Connect

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Fraud and Conspiracy

November 18, 2021 by rfl_icbac7

Where is the boundary between innocent association and active collaboration?

We act for both plaintiffs and defendants in fraud and conspiracy claims.

In Global Chinese Press v. Zhang we obtained an injunction giving our clients direct control of the defendant’s businesses well before trial. We obtained orders for a

  • Mareva injunction freezing the assets of some of the main defendants, an
  • Anton Piller order permitting us to search their residences, and an
  • Order appointing a receiver over the defendant’s companies.

We found further incriminating evidence in the search, including evidence of significant diversions of monies in China, and this led to our clients obtaining immediate control of the businesses they claimed ownership of.

However, these orders can be a double-edged sword. If plaintiffs are not scrupulous about the information they give the court when they obtain the orders, they may spend a great deal of time and money and end up with nothing to show for it when the court sets the orders aside, as in Northwestpharmacy.com v. Yates.

Recent Cases

Fulton v. McKay

Anton Piller order upheld against mortgage investment firm
2021 BCSC 2316

Northwestpharmacy.com v. Yates

Freeze order set aside where plaintiffs overstated claim
2018 BCSC 41

Global Chinese Press v. Zhang

Plaintiffs obtain control of defendant businesses before trial
2015 BCSC 8742015 BCSC 768

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Robert Fleming Lawyers

Robert Fleming Lawyers

Litigation

ADDRESS

520 - 925 West Georgia
Vancouver V6C 3L2
Canada
Map

CONTACT

t + 1 604 682-1659
f + 1 604 568-8548

EMAIL

info@fleminglawyer.com
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