Ontario court confirms estate notices may go online
• The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has confirmed that placing an online Notice to Creditors on a designated website is satisfactory notice to creditors.
The court ruling says that publishing a notice a website called notice connect. com provides satisfactory notice to creditors, and therefore protects estate trustees or executors from liability from unknown creditors of an estate.
In the past, executors routinely placed ads in the classified sections of newspapers to gain such protection. It was unclear however, whether online advertising, which is much cheaper than newspaper advertising, complied with the relevant provisions of Ontario’s Trustee Act. So the Ontario court ruling bestows receive peace of mind, but also saves estate trustees some money. Advertising for creditors on NoticeConnect. com costs only $ 130. The website’s founders, Patrick Hartford and Ori Barbut, say their site has a far greater reach than newspapers.
Interestingly neither of the co- founders have ever practised l aw, although Hartford was called to the Ontario Bar in 2016. In fact, it was while studying for the estates section of Ontario’s Solicitor Licensing Exams t hat Hartford wondered why estate trustees were only advertising in newspapers. He discussed a plan to create an online notice repository with his longtime friend Barbut, who had programing expertise. The two decided to fill the online gap.
NoticeConnect was a topfive finalist in last December’s The Final Pitch, which was sponsored in part by The Legal Innovation Zone and the Ministry of the Attorney General as a way to support technology initiatives that would improve access to justice.
Since then, NoticeConnect has won support from estates lawyers, legal service organizations and creditors across the province, leading it to seek judicial blessing this month.
Hartford said he’s thrilled with the court decision. “It’s now affordable for every estate trustee in Ontario to advertise for creditors and protect themselves f rom personal liability. This is a win for access to justice.”
Creditors are able to search the website free of charge and they can also sign up to a free email subscription that alerts them when new creditor notices are posted. Some creditors have asked for the ability to connect directly to the site and download notices directly to their own internal systems; something that is currently in beta testing.
The court decision only applies in Ontario, but it’s not hard to see other provinces following suit over time. “There are a lot of other kinds of notices out there and there are other jurisdictions struggling with what to do,” Hartford said. “There’s definitely no shortage of things for us to tackle.”