Areas of Practice
The lawyers at Eastwood, O’Reilly Law Offices help their clients’. James and Jennifer take a people-focused approach.
They listen, and take time to know their client’s needs. Here are some of the services they offer.
Family
Law
Separating from a partner is hard. It triggers many emotional and financial challenges. It raises questions and concerns. A good family law lawyer helps their client solve these challenges.
Employment
Law
Changes to judge-made law and employment statutes are now mainstream issues for both employers and employees. We offer current knowledge of these statutes and how they interrelate.
Wills & Estates
Law
No one likes to think about life ending, but prudent life planning includes end-of-life planning.
Family
Family Law
Separating from a partner is hard. It triggers many emotional and financial challenges. It raises questions and concerns.
A good family law lawyer helps their client solve these challenges.
James and Jennifer help their clients. They both take a people-focused approach. They listen, and take time to know their clients’ needs. They both have the skill and experience to see the larger picture, and to guide their clients through the haze of emotions which can otherwise get in the way of good decisions.
Both of these lawyers offer sound legal counsel. Although it is often easier to tell clients what they want to hear, James and Jennifer prefer to tell their clients what they need to hear. This is best – not only for their client, but for their client’s family.
In a perfect world, all family law cases would settle quickly and happily through the expert use of negotiation or mediation processes. While this often happens, it is not always the case. If court is required, they both have the know-how to advocate strongly for their clients.
Forceful advocacy takes cases to successful outcomes.
We can help you with:
- Marriage Contracts and
- Prenuptial Agreements
- Cohabitation Agreements
- Separation Agreements & Traditional Negotiation
- Variations of Existing Court Orders
- Child Custody
- Child Support
- Spousal Support
- Division of Property, Assets & Debts
- Divorce
Employment
We can help you with:
- Employment Standards Act compliance
- Wrongful dismissal actions
- Human Rights Code issues
- Bill 168: Occupational Health and Safety Act
- Employment Contracts
- Mediation
Employment Law
Changes to judge-made law and employment statutes are now mainstream issues for both employers and employees.
Ever increasing and complex, there are a multitude of employment-related statutes in Ontario. With a focus on employment law, James offers current knowledge of these statutes and how they interrelate. He represent employees and employers. In all cases, he works with clients to achieve the best solutions, with a positive emphasis on cost-effectiveness.
For employers, he works to know your business and how you value your human resources. Staying ahead of workplace problems, and making smart early decisions avoids costly emotional and financial issues later on. It requires experience and knowledge to navigate these pathways.
For employees, he recognizes and respects the stressors you are confronting, and the need to understand your best outcome—and how to achieve it. In the majority of workplace issues and job severances, proactive decision-making helps to move away from difficult situations and towards healthy family/career choices.
Specific To Employees:
- Review and negotiation of severance packages, and drafting releases
- Harassment concerns
- Representation in court, or at administrative tribunals
Specific To Employers:
- Effective counsel for staff downsizing strategies
- Best practices: overview and implementation
- Managing, preventing, and defending wrongful/constructive dismissal court actions
Wills & Estates
Wills & Estates Law
According to a new poll, 51 per cent of Canadians do not have a will.
– ctvnews.ca, January 23, 2018
No one likes to think about life ending, but prudent life planning includes end-of-life planning.
Eastwood, O’Reilly Law Offices assists with:
- Wills
- Powers of Attorney
- Living Wills
- Estate Planning
- Domestic/Marriage Contracts
The legal world is increasingly complex. For complicated estate planning issues (such as drafting trust agreements) and administering estates after death, we have a network of skilled lawyers outside our office who we trust to work with our clients.
Time passes much too quickly. Do not leave incomplete estate plans for your loved ones to sort out after you are gone. Please give us a call.
We can help you with:
- Wills
- Powers of Attorney
- Living Wills
- Estate Planning
- Domestic/Marriage Contracts
Mediation
Mediation : Family Law and Employment
What is Mediation?
Mediation is a voluntary process: two or more parties meet with a trained mediator to engage in negotiation with the goal of resolving issues in dispute between them. The goal is to successfully craft your own agreement — outside of formal court process — which offers a fulsome settlement built on balanced decision making.
Formal court process force decisions to happen. It is rare to come out of a courtroom with a win on every issue. Mediation optimizes your ability to have a say on the issues which are most important to you, and to settle in a civil and amicable manner.
What is the Role of the Mediator?
The mediator’s role is to facilitate discussions between the parties in an effort to assist them to work out their own settlement between themselves. The parties can attend by themselves, or they can agree in advance to each bring a lawyer to assist them.
The mediator applies their skills and expertise to
- guide the discussion
- help the parties express their opinions and positions in a safe and constructive manner, and
- assist the parties to generate their own options for resolution.
In short, a mediator brings parties together who are in conflict and gives them a chance to share, assess, and respond to each other’s positions so that they can reach an equitable outcome between themselves.
What are the Benefits of Mediation?
Mediation offers the following benefits:
- It is less expensive than court litigation.
- The process of mediation brings parties together to reach their own solutions, and their solutions tend to be much more capably customized towards the best outcome for themselves and for their children.
- Mediation is confidential, as compared to court process which creates a public record of each party’s financial particulars and the factual/legal issues they are fighting over.
- It is a safe process. The mediator exercises insight based on their experience and information learned from individual pre-mediation interviews with each party, to help facilitate a constructive – as opposed to a destructive – exchange of ideas.
- As a general rule, neither party in mediation should expect to get 100% of what they want. An effective resolution is one built on reasoned compromise but is not based on either party simply giving up their positions. A settlement will arise in mediation only if the parties reach agreement. Neither party will be forced into an agreement.
- Family law mediation often involves parenting issues. Studies repeatedly demonstrate that children in separated families will suffer emotional harm if their parents are engaged in conflict.
- Mediation helps parents share their views and differences, arriving at their own customized parenting plan. Parents who work out their own parenting plan rather than having one ordered by a judge (who does not know their children) tend to trust and follow their Agreement. A cooperative parenting plan helps protect children from negative adult issues and can proactively move them forward in a healthy two-household environment.
In short, a mediator helps people talk with one another. Good discussions make for good settlements.
What is the Role of Lawyers?
It is always a good idea to meet with a lawyer. Getting independent legal advice helps people understand what their rights are. Within the mediation process, legal advice helps people make effective decisions. In some situations, it can be beneficial for the parties to have their lawyers attend mediation sessions through a process known as Five-Way Mediation, which can provide an excellent environment for helping parties resolve more complicated legal issues.
The value of mediation has been known for years. Consider these famous quotes:
“Discourage litigation, persuade your neighbours to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser – in legal fees, and expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.” – Abraham Lincoln
“In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity.” – Albert Einstein