Courts
Our firm represents trade unions at all levels of the British Columbia and federal courts.
Our lawyers have considerable court experience representing unions in strike and picketing injunctions, contempt matters, lawsuits of various kinds, and appellate proceedings.
We also regularly represent unions in the judicial review of a wide variety of administrative tribunals including the BC Labour Relations Board, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board, the BC Employment Standards Tribunal, the BC Human Rights Tribunal, and the BC Privacy Commissioner.
Labour Relations Boards
The lawyers in our firm have extensive experience representing trade unions at both the British Columbia Labour Relations Board and the Canada Industrial Relations Board.
We represent unions in all types of labour board matters, including certification applications, unfair labour practice complaints, successorship and common employer applications, duty of fair representation complaints, illegal strike and lockout complaints, and applications regarding picketing.
In addition to litigation, our clients regularly seek our advice on a broad range of issues that arise under labour relations legislation. In particular, we frequently provide strategic legal advice to unions regarding collective bargaining issues, labour disputes, and picketing rights.
Labour Arbitration
We regularly represent trade unions in labour arbitrations in both the provincial and federal jurisdictions.
The lawyers in our firm have extensive experience in labour arbitration. We also have considerable experience in the appeal and review of arbitration awards by the BC Labour Relations Board, the BC Supreme Court, and the BC Court of Appeal.
In addition to representing unions at arbitration, we regularly provide legal advice to unions regarding all issues that arise under collective agreements.
Human Rights Tribunals
Unions are often parties to human rights complaints, both as complainants and respondents.
Our firm regularly represents trade unions and their members before human rights tribunals. In addition, we frequently deal with claims under human rights legislation in arbitration proceedings.
Our lawyers also have considerable experience in the judicial review of human rights tribunal decisions in the courts.
Workers’ Compensation
Our firm assists trade unions and their members with their workers’ compensation claims and appeals.
Our lawyers have extensive experience conducting reviews at the WorkSafeBC Review Division, appeals at the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT) and judicial reviews at the Supreme Court of British Columbia.
Privacy Commissioners
Privacy law is an area that increasingly affects trade unions. There are separate legislative schemes for the provincial public sector, provincial private sector, federal public sector, and federal private sector.
We assist unions and their members in obtaining access to information under these various legislative schemes, and in responding to requests that unions disclose information.
We have been counsel in many cases before privacy commissioners, as well as in judicial reviews of decisions under privacy legislation. In addition, we frequently deal with privacy issues at arbitration and in labour board proceedings.
Mediation and Settlement
We recognize that, while litigation is often necessary, there are circumstances where a settlement is the preferable option.
Our lawyers have extensive experience in the settlement of disputes, both directly with opposing counsel and through mediation processes.
Education and Training
We provide education and training to union representatives and activists on a variety of topics. For example, we have conducted seminars and workshops on privacy law, union organizing, collective bargaining issues, and recent developments in labour law.