Professional Biography
Michael was born in Fort William (now Thunder Bay) Ontario in 1964. He grew up in the Niagara Peninsula. He obtained an Honours degree in Journalism at Carleton University in Ottawa in 1987. After working as a freelance writer and documentary producer, he obtained a combined degree in common law (LL.B.) and civil law (B.C.L.) at McGill University in Montreal in 1992 and was a researcher and writer for Brierley and Macdonald’s treatise, Quebec Civil Law: an Introduction to Quebec Private Law. He was called the bar of Ontario in February 1994. As an associate with the Litigation Department of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt in Toronto, he practiced primarily in the areas of general commercial litigation and insurance defence. He also co-authored Shareholder Meetings: The Role of the Chair and the Courts in Shareholder Democracy with Larry P. Lowenstein, and wrote a number of publications for the Federal Department of Justice, including Common Law and Civil Law in Canada”, “Lawyers and Litigation” and “Canada’s System of Justice”.
He moved to Vancouver in 1997 and was called to the BC bar in September of that year. He continued his commercial litigation practice here until 2002 when he joined the firm of Stewart & Company as a senior trial counsel, practicing primarily in the area of insurance defence, in addition to taking on a large Court of Appeal practice. Between 2013 and 2015, he focused on Plaintiff’s side catastrophic personal injury claims, before moving this practice over to Harris & Brun in 2015. At DuMoulin Boskovich LLP, Michael has continued his personal injury practice along side insurance defence litigation. He has also added employment law to his growing areas of interest and experience. Over the years he has also contributed regularly to continued legal education in the province, including his April 2014 paper, “Uses and Misuses of Collateral Witness Evidence” presented at the TLABC Brain Injury Conference. Michael lives happily in North Vancouver with his wife Leanne, their children and innumerable books, musical instruments, cats and other small creatures.
Areas of Practice
• Claims involving severe brain injury, spinal cord injury, amputation, psychological injury, chronic pain, thoracic outlet syndrome, chronic regional pain syndrome and other complex cases
• Claims involving complex liability issues, including near drownings, building code violations, occupiers liability, railway liability, structural failures, ski-hill accidents, burns, fire and insurance coverage, electrocutions, disfigurement and scarring, government liability, police liability, medical and hospital malpractice, to name a few
• Family Compensation Act claims;
• Wrongful Dismissal
• Defamation
• Human Rights Commission Claims
• Disability Claims
• Conflict of Laws (inter-jurisdictional insurance)
• Out of Province Claims
• UMP Arbitrations
• Canada Pension Plan Appeals
• WCAT
• General Appellate practice
• Fraud and Breach of Coverage; and
• General Professional negligence