Services
Civil, commercial, business and property disputes before the Quebec courts. We settle where settling serves you, and we litigate where it does not.
We act in civil, commercial, contractual and extracontractual disputes where the detail matters and the lawyer has to know the file personally. That work runs through shareholder litigation, commercial disputes and damages claims, in the Court of Quebec and the Superior Court, in Montreal and across the province.
Quebec procedure sets its own pace. The Code of Civil Procedure expects parties to consider private dispute resolution before going to court, and case protocols get agreed early and then held to. That structure rewards whoever has organized the file properly at the outset, and it punishes whoever has not.
We push for a negotiated end first. That is not softness about compromise. A settlement reached early is usually worth more than a judgment reached late, once you count what the litigation itself costs in money and in attention. Where settlement is not on the table, or the terms are worse than the risk of carrying on, we litigate.
One thing worth raising early in any Quebec file is prescription. Civil claims here expire after a period fixed by the Code, and the clock often starts running before people realize they have a problem. If the events go back a while, tell us when they happened and we will tell you where you stand.
A lot of the business side of this work involves people who were partners until fairly recently, and that changes how a file should be run. Shareholder disputes here turn on the statute the company was incorporated under, on the shareholder agreement if one exists, and on the oppression remedy available to a shareholder whose reasonable expectations have been disregarded. What a court can order under that remedy is broad, which often makes it the most practical way out of a deadlock.
Property disputes carry a cost while they run. Someone is trading out of the building, or a lender is waiting on a decision, and every month of delay shows up somewhere on a balance sheet. We factor that in, because the legally optimal route and the commercially sensible one are not always the same, and you are entitled to know when they part company.
Most cases are decided by the quality of the record rather than the quality of the argument. We build the chronology and the documents first and let the theory of the case follow them. That sometimes means telling a client early that their file is weaker than they believe, which is a cheaper conversation to have now than at examination.
Latent defect claims turn on the technical record, not on advocacy. What was actually there, and what a prudent examination would have caught. Engineering and inspection reports get read here the way an engineer reads them rather than the way a summary describes them, and knowing which questions to put to an expert changes what a file is worth long before anyone sees a courtroom.
As soon as a contract breach, shareholder conflict or partnership problem looks serious. Early advice narrows the dispute before positions harden, and in Quebec it also protects you on prescription.
A court application by a shareholder, director or other complainant who says the company has acted in a way that unfairly disregards their interests. The court has wide latitude in what it can order, which makes it a practical tool in a deadlock.
Yes. Rent conflicts, alleged breaches, renewal and termination disagreements, and eviction proceedings, acting for landlords and for tenants. Commercial leases in Quebec are governed by the Civil Code and by the lease itself, not by the residential regime, so the starting point is usually the document you signed.
Yes, including registration, contestation and discharge, and the deadlines that govern each of them.
A claim that a property had a serious defect which existed at the time of sale, was not apparent on a prudent examination, and was not disclosed. The Civil Code of Quebec gives the buyer a warranty against exactly that.
Yes, including reorganizations and winding a company up in an orderly way.
Tell us what has happened and we will tell you plainly whether we can help, and what it is likely to involve. We work in French and in English.
Book a consultation 514-447-9425[email protected]
1550 Metcalfe Street, Suite 500, Montreal, Quebec H3A 1X6