Civil and commercial litigation often requires lawyers to unravel complicated webs of corporate relationships between parties to litigation. Too often this will require expensive and time-consuming discovery proceedings. During a recent engagement, however, we were able to assist a law firm in avoiding discoveries entirely by relying on publicly available information.
We were retained by a local civil litigation practice to assist in a case involving litigation between two insurers. The case rested on the ability of the plaintiff to establish that an Ontario-based insurer was sufficiently related to certain U.S. entities to allow for the application of certain Ontario legislation.
We were initially engaged to review documents provided by counsel to the plaintiff in order to assist them in developing questions and topics for discovery. However, by reviewing financial statements and company information available on-line through the websites of the insurers and certain regulators, we were able to clearly establish that the Canadian and U.S. entities were related by common control and ownership. Armed with this information, our client was able to secure a significant settlement for the plaintiff without having to proceed to discoveries at all.
There is a wealth of information on-line, provided you know where to look and how to interpret it. If you have a complex litigation issue, contact our team – we’re here to help.
