By Valerie Dixon.

More and more individuals involved in civil litigation are representing themselves in Court proceedings. Often the reason is cost - many individuals simply cannot afford to retain a lawyer to assist them - however litigants are occasionally unrepresented because their claim has no merit in law. In either case, there is no question that for the employer, defending a claim brought by an unrepresented litigant will be more expensive. A recent employment case from the BC Court of Appeal, Routkovskaia v. BC (Human Rights Tribunal), illustrates this point.

By Nicole Byres.

The Canadian legal community has been abuzz about the January 2012 Jones v Tsige decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal, which recognized a new common law breach of privacy tort called Intrusion on Seclusion. This term was first coined by Professor William Prosser in a 1960 California Law Review article, and later recognized as a tort in most US jurisdictions. In this article, we look at the implications of this new tort for BC businesses.

By Nicole Byres.

The final round of minimum wage increases announced by the BC Government in March 2011 takes effect on May 1, 2012 (the first and second round of increases took effect on May 1st and November 1st, 2011 respectively). A summary of the latest increases are as follows:

• the general minimum wage will increase from $9.50 to $10.25 per hour,
• the minimum wage for liquor servers will increase from $8.75 to $9.00 per hour,
• live-in home support workers’ minimum wage will increase from $95.00 to $102.50 per day or part day,
• live-in camp leaders' minimum wage will increase from $76 to $82 per day or part day, and
• resident caretakers minimum wage for an apartment building containing
  • 9-60 suites will increase to $615 per month plus $24.65 for each suite, and
  • more than 60 suites will increase to $2,094.84 per month.