In this court ruling released yesterday, the lawyer was ordered to pay almost $1Million for negligently preparing a Marriage Contract that was intended to shield certain assets from equalization during a subsequent divorce.
In the end of this trial, the court concluded that the client proved, “on a balance of probabilities that the …(defendant lawyers)… failed to meet the applicable standard of care and breached their fiduciary duties in preparing the Marriage Contract…. They were not competent, were in conflict, and failed to disclose material risks. Their failures caused …(the judge presiding over the divorce proceeding)… to set aside the Marriage Contract. Had this not occurred, the plaintiff would not have been liable to share the property sought to have been protected by the Marriage Contract. As a direct consequence of this, the plaintiff has incurred damages for the equalization payment, associated legal fees and costs awards, and interest from continuous remortgaging of the family farm required to fund all this, in the amount of $945,389.40. He is entitled to damages for that amount.”
Martin v. Giesbrecht Griffin Funk & Irvine LLP and Lavergne, 2022 ONSC 1684
https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2022/2022onsc1684/2022onsc1684.html