Blog

Ambleside Law is pleased to welcome Shahrzad Pakravan as the firm’s newest lawyer. 

Shahrzad specializes in several legal fields, including contracts, real estate, corporate commercial, wills, estate planning and probate. She is fluent in Farsi.

Her primary practice areas include contract drafting, real estate conveyancing, secured lending, and commercial leasing. She provides estate planning and probate services, including providing advice and document preparation. She also serves clients in general corporate and business law, including incorporations and mergers and acquisitions.  

Shahrzad prioritizes her clients and is committed to delivering exceptional legal services while upholding the highest ethical standards. 

Outside the office, Shahrzad enjoys a diverse range of activities, from watching opera performances to engaging in outdoor pursuits like hiking and snowshoeing with her husband. 

Please join us in welcoming Shahrzad to Ambleside Law. 

Ambleside Law is pleased to welcome Bijan Ahamadian as the firm’s newest lawyer and mediator.

Bijan is a practical business and tax lawyer with experience across a variety of industries, including non-profits, tech, real-estate, food and beverage, and the arts. He has guided investors and businesses in their journey from the structuring and acquisition phases through to dispute resolution, operations, tax planning, and exits. He has been a regular speaker at the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver on estate planning, taxation, and new legislations.

He helps structure business deals with a forward-looking approach, considering factors such as taxes, family matters, succession planning, regulatory compliance, dispute resolution, and exit strategies.

During his spare time, Bijan likes to perform on the stage. He danced for the Vancouver Pars National Ballet for several years, and occasionally performs at Persian New Year fundraisers. He is currently on the advisory board of Nava Production Studio in North Vancouver. Bijan is married to Renya Ahmadian, and they have a son.

Please join us in welcoming Bijan to Ambleside Law.

Dear valued clients,

This spring marks a new chapter for our firm, formerly Sager Nairne. We are proud to be serving you now as Ambleside Law LLP. This new name reflects our deep roots in the community, and our ongoing commitment to providing outstanding legal services in these practice areas:

• Corporate and Commercial
• Family Law
• Litigation
• Mediation and Arbitration
• Medical Malpractice
• Personal Injury
• Real Estate
• Sexual Assault & Abuse
• Tax Planning
• Wills, Estates and Estate Litigation

New team members having joined to increase our capacity and range of services, and you can learn more about them on the website.

As always, you can find us at our 1495 Marine Drive location. We provide the high calibre of legal services you expect with a down-to-earth approach, all from a convenient West Vancouver location.

You remain our focus. We are here to help navigate your legal needs. Please reach out if you have any questions, or if you need our support with any legal matters.

Sincerely,
Ron & the Ambleside Law team

+1 604 922 8881 | reception@ambleside.law

It is with profound sadness that we advise our many friends and clients of the passing of Michelle Taylor. This wonderful person has been a vital member of our team for over 16 years. Her always thoughtful manner and good humour lightened the lives of so many people both with us and her church which she loved dearly.

If the company you work for terminates your employment and you are offered too little in severance (or perhaps nothing at all), you may have a case for wrongful dismissal.

In British Columbia, your employer needs sufficient reason for terminating you, such as for serious misconduct, to send you away with nothing in hand. This is called a “with cause” or “just cause” dismissal. But the employer’s ability to actually prove the underlying misconduct necessary to justify that dismissal can be difficult. Not every instance of alleged “bad employee behaviour” is enough to warrant a termination. Other reasons, such as an economic downturn, may lead an employer to terminate an employee on a simple “without cause” basis. If you are terminated without cause, the employer should offer you some advance notice of when your employment will end (i.e., the “notice period”), or pay in lieu of such notice.

What determines a reasonable notice period, and thus the value of money damages in a wrongful dismissal case, depends on the circumstances. Every case is different. For some occupations, the law might assign two weeks per year of service as an award; for others, it’s closer to a month per year of service. This means if you have worked for a company for 20 years before being terminated on a without cause basis, you may have a claim worth as much as 20 months’ salary. If the termination occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, that may also be a relevant consideration, although the law has yet to say that being terminated during this time will necessarily lead to a longer notice period.

If you are terminated, you can probably expect your employer to offer you a severance package. Maybe you get asked to sign it within a week. The question naturally arises whether the package is fair. This is when clients are well-advised to talk to a lawyer on the adequacy of the severance offer. If the offer is too low, the lawyer can advise on how to deal with it strategically. If a better resolution cannot be negotiated, then the client can go to trial to have a court decide what the damages will be. Of course, litigation costs time and money. For this reason, employers are well-advised to offer just enough in severance to discourage the ex-employee from waiting for his day in court, the result of which is never guaranteed.

But this doesn’t always happen. Some severance packages are woefully inadequate. Other times they are not offered at all. In a nightmare scenario, the employer bases a just-cause dismissal on allegations that may not even be true. Without seeking legal advice, few may realize just how valuable their claim is really worth, particularly if they spent many years at the same company and were earning high incomes.

If you have worked for many years at the same place, only to be dismissed and provided a small severance package, or worse, no package at all, then you should seek legal advice immediately, as litigation deadlines apply. Same goes for employers who have terminated an employee or are about to terminate. Legal advice may assist in defending against a claim, or minimizing the liability for an impending or ongoing one.

If you have questions about what to do regarding a termination of employment, talk to the litigation lawyers at Ambleside Law without delay.