Dear valued Clients and Colleagues,

 

With government recommendations about “social distancing”, our offices have instituted new protocols for your consideration.

 

Where possible, we are recommending telephone and skype calls instead of in-office appointments. In-person meetings will be kept to those special circumstances where in-person meetings are absolutely required to move a matter forward, or to those occasions where you believe an in-person meeting is necessary for your peace of mind.

 

When you do attend at our offices, you will be asked to knock on the door, after having washed and disinfected your hands with the provided hand sanitizer available outside our front door. You will then be asked to confirm that you are not in any way ill and that you have not travelled out of the country within the past two weeks.

 

When invited in, you will be asked to keep your “social distance” with staff and lawyers. No one will be shaking hands, but smiles and humour will always be shared.

 

As the Courts are down now for a little while, and only urgent matters will be scheduled for hearings until further notice, it is a good time for all of us to conduct a file review and to strategize on how to move your matter along expeditiously, despite the Courts’ hiatus. Also, we will be using this time wisely to consider your current interim circumstances in order to determine if a hearing could be scheduled at this time to manage your urgent or very special circumstances. We will also be considering alternate dispute resolution avenues if circumstances warrant this approach and will conduct these ADR appearances remotely using electronic means.

 

While COVID-19 has placed us all in unusual circumstances, family issues continue to require our involvement. How we do this will require some adjustment and patience. We will all work together to manage this challenging time.

 

Gottlieb Law Firm endeavors to reply to all emails within 72 hours.