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ARTICLE · 07 JULY 2021

Claim For Online Research Costs Rejected In Ontario Commercial Proceeding

Gardiner Roberts LLP
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As we have previously written, many courts are extremely reluctant to grant a winning party recovery for online legal research disbursements when making a costs award.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Stephen Thiele
Stephen Thiele
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As we have previously written, many courts are extremely reluctant to grant a winning party recovery for online legal research disbursements when making a costs award. A party who seeks the recovery on such disbursement must do more than simply present a monetary figure for this disbursement. Without more, a court will be compelled to determine that the costs of online legal research are part of a law firm's overhead and thereby unrecoverable.

This was the result in  Crosslinx Transit Solutions General Partnership v. Ontario Infrastructure and Lands Corp., 2021 ONSC 4364 (CanLII).

In this case, the successful applicant sought costs in the total amount of $430,000 in connection with a two-day application. The respondent opposed this request and also contended that a $4,000 disbursement for online legal research was not compensable.

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