“Lowered Expectations” – Catchy Sketch Comedy Jingle, Bad Legal Principal

Those of us of a certain age will remember a sketch comedy television series originally inspired by Mad magazine that aired on Fox from 1995 to 2009 called “MADtv”. Among the recurring sketches on MADtv was a segment called “Lowered Expectations”, which spoofed dating videos.

The title “Lowered Expectations” poses a relevant employment law question: Does a dismissed employee have a legal duty to mitigate her damages by searching for a lesser paying job after a reasonable period of time has passed looking for a more comparable position?

Just as it is true that no one should have to lower their expectations in looking for love, in Lake v. La Presse, 2022 ONCA 742 (CanLII), the Court of Appeal for Ontario (van Rensburg, Pardu and Copeland JJ.A.) held that a motion judge had erred in principle when she accepted that, in mitigation, after a reasonable period of attempting to find similar employment, a dismissed employee must begin searching for a lesser paying job.

Sorry if you now have the theme song stuck in your head.

Assessment of Damages in Sexual Assault Cases

What is a reasonable assessment of damages in a civil case of sexual assault? Is the fact that a perpetrator of sexual assault has not been criminally punished a relevant factor in the decision to award punitive damages?

In Zando v. Ali, 2018 ONCA 680 (CanLII), Ontario’s top court adopted the framework for determining damages in a civil sexual battery or assault cases described in Nova Scotia (Attorney General) v. B.M.G., 2007 NSCA 120 (CanLII), 260 N.S.R. (2d) 257, per Cromwell J.A. (as he then was), and affirmed a lower court’s award of $200,000, made up of general damages of $175,000 and punitive damages of $25,000.

Employees Not “Actively Employed” Still Entitled to Bonus Payments: ONCA

EA Sports, the makers of such videogame as NHL hockey and Madden NFL football, previously employed the motto, “If it's in the game, it's in the game”, meaning that if something happened in the real game, then it would appear in the videogame. More recently, the motto has been shorted to simply “It’s in the game.”

While it is highly unlikely we will see a member of Ontario’s judiciary on the cover on NHL 18, the court did just lay some serious body checks, figuratively speaking, on Ontario’s employers. Following two decisions from the Court of Appeal for Ontario Paquette v. TeraGo Networks Inc., 2016 ONCA 618 (CanLII) and Lin v. Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, 2016 ONCA 619 (CanLII), both of which were released on August 9, 2016, Ontario’s employers would be prudent to heed this warning: “In determining damages for wrongful dismissal, Ontario’s court will typically include all of the compensation and benefits that the employee would have earned during the notice period.” Put another way, “If it’s in the game, it’s in the game.”