/ Case Law

Court Approval: One year later

Today marks exactly one year since the Superior Court confirmed in a written decision that publishing a notice to creditors on NoticeConnect satisfies the requirements of the Trustee Act.

When we launched NoticeConnect in June of 2015, we knew we'd created a better way to advertise for creditors. We also knew it would take time to earn the trust of estates practitioners. The feedback from our first users was extremely positive. More of their clients were willing to publish notices to creditors because we'd made it affordable and effective. We also heard from creditors who were able to collect debts because they'd found relevant ads on our site.

With the help of Mills & Mills LLP, we prepared to seek official court approval that NoticeConnect satisfied a trustee's legal requirements. The court agreed, stating that the test notice published on NoticeConnect.com "was an appropriate notice to creditors and the Applicant is therefore entitled to the liability protection afforded by s. 53(1) of the Trustee Act."

"When I had the opportunity to seek court approval of this form of advertising for creditors, I jumped at it as I knew that my firm’s clients – as well as the clients of other estate lawyers – would benefit from that validation. I was delighted that the court shared my assessment of the value and efficacy of this service." --- David Mills, Managing Partner at Mills & Mills LLP.

Thousands of notices to creditors have been published with us. Since the court ruling, advertising for creditors on NoticeConnect has become the standard practice in Ontario.

Milestones from the past year

Some highlights from the past year include:

  • Seeing notices published on NoticeConnect from every corner of Ontario: from Windsor to Dryden to Kapuskasing to Ottawa and everywhere in between

  • Launching our Knowledge of a Will notice service, helping lawyers find out if a deceased individual had a will

  • Building and launching our Creditor Dashboard, which has helped creditors find matches and make collections

  • Haivng notices published on our site by sole practitioners, Bay Street firms, government, trust companies, and individual trustees

  • Announcing (and soon launching) our integrations with Do Process and Emergent