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Andrew Monkhouse – Toronto Employment Lawyer
Managing Partner
416-907-9249 x 225
andrew@monkhouselaw.com
Bar Society Memberships:
• Active Member of the Law Society of Ontario
• Active Member of the Law Society of British Columbia
Key Representative Details:
Managing Partner, Legal Author, Law Professor, Business Owner and Community Volunteer. Andrew has many roles. In his role as a litigator he took the most employment law cases to trial of any lawyer in Ontario between 2013 and 2023 and has exceptional in-court experience.
Andrew is a pioneer in Class Actions work having started the first contractor/employee class action in Ontario and the first vacation-holiday underpayment class actions.
Andrew has worked tirelessly for clients in civil litigation, specializing in employment, human rights, and disability insurance law. Andrew has an academic appointment to teach courses at Osgoode Hall Law School as an adjunct (part time) professor where he teaches law students.
Andrew is extremely active in his involvement in legal organizations devoted to training, networking, and improving legal skills among employment lawyers. Andrew is the founding President of the ELAO – Employment Lawyers Association of Ontario (ELAO) – which represents and organizes events for employment lawyers in Ontario. He is also the current Past Chair of the Ontario Bar Association (OBA) Labour and Employment Section and the current Secretary of the Canadian Bar Association Labour and Employment Section. Andrew has spoken at countless educational seminars providing his legal knowledge to other lawyers on a variety of topics.
As the managing partner of Monkhouse Law, Andrew has grown the firm, which ranked as the top growing law firm in Canada in 2019 according to the Globe and Mail, in all of North America by the Financial Times again in 2020, and in Ontario in 2020 again by the Globe and Mail. Monkhouse Law has been selected as a finalist for “Labour & Employment Law Boutique of the Year” by the Canadian HR awards three times (2018, 2019, 2020) and was the silver winner of the “University of Waterloo Award for Next Generation Employment Innovation” award in 2020. Among many other awards, Monkhouse Law was chosen as the “readers’ choice” award by the Toronto Star in 2019.
Andrew is a published author in employment law, currently serving as the lead author of “Canadian Forms and Precedents – Commercial Transactions – Employment,” published by LexisNexis Canada.
He volunteers his time as the Convener (organizer) of the Osgoode Cup, Canada’s largest legal competition held on an annual basis.
You can also follow Andrew on Twitter: @andrewmonkhouse
Representative Work and Trials:
Andrew is a trial lawyer having 100 reported decisions before judges. To see a search for the most reported cases, you can look on Canlii which has many of the decisions reported.
Andrew has successfully represented clients across Canada, including individuals from Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. Andrew holds bar memberships in Ontario and British Columbia.
He has appeared in court before the Ontario Superior Court, the Divisional Appeals Court, and Court of Appeal, as well as the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also appeared with success before the Human Rights Tribunal and numerous other administrative bodies.
Recent notable cases (Note: each case is individual, and past success does not guarantee future success.
Giduturi v. LG Electronics Canada Inc: Trial Decision: Justice Dineen sided with Andrew Monkhouse and Reshida Darrell for the employee in finding that the worker did not fail to mitigate and was owed 12 months notice of termination.
Tan v Stostac Inc., 2023 ONSC 2121 (CanLII): Trial Decision: Andrew was counsel for the employee and was able to have a clause invalidated which claimed to reduce notice. The employee was awarded 7 months notice and did not have to repay CERB.
Singh v. RBC Insurance Agency Ltd., 2023 ONSC 1439: Class Action Certification: Andrew was co-counsel certifying this class action against RBC Insurance Agency and tentatively certifying against Aviva.
Lee v. Allstate Insurance, 2023 ONSC 8: Class Action Certification: The Ontario Superior Court certified a class action against Allstate on unpaid vacation and statutory pay on commissions of variable compensation employees who worked for the company.
Janmohamed v Dr . Zia Medicine PC: Costs Decision: Andrew Monkhouse was able to get a cost award of $30,000 to cover the legal fees of a terminated employee after a settlement for $15,000.
Curtis v. Medcan Health Management Inc., 2022 ONSC 5176: Class Action Certification: The Ontario Superior Court certified a class action against Medcan on unpaid vacation and statutory pay on commissions of variable compensation employees who worked for the company from April 7, 2005.
Gracias v. Dr. David Walt Dentistry, 2022 ONSC 2967 (CanLII): Trial Decision: Andrew was successful as lead counsel for a six-month employee who was terminated, and her employer accused her of falsifying job applications. The defendant’s accusations were unsuccessful, and the contract was invalidated, resulting in the plaintiff receiving three months’ notice.
Nahum v. Honeycomb Hospitality Inc., 2021 ONSC 7546 (CanLII): Appeal Decision: Andrew acted as lead counsel for the Plaintiff who had been terminated while pregnant and received an elongated notice period at trial. The Divisional Court agreed that she should receive an elongated notice period of 8 months’ severance pay after working for the company for just four months.
Navartnarajah v. FSB Group Ltd., 2021 ONSC 5418 (CanLII): Certification Decision: Andrew was co-counsel with Alexandra Monkhouse on this class action certification decision regarding claimed worker misclassification as contractors. The case is groundbreaking as it certifies severance and termination pay in a class action.
Rallis v. Approval Team Inc., 2020 ONSC 4197 (CanLII): Certification Motion: Andrew was co-counsel with Alexandra Monkhouse in certifying a case before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice regarding a class action for worker misclassification against Approval Team.
Morris v Solar Brokers, 2019 ONSC 6817 (CanLII): Class Action Certification: Andrew was co-counsel with Alexandra Monkhouse in certifying a class action on behalf of workers who were called contractors working for a solar panel sales firm operating out of Ontario and Alberta. Monkhouse Law successfully certified the claim.
Joshi v. Allstate (2019 ONSC 4382): Motion: Andrew represented an employee against her past employer in dismissing their counterclaim for $700,000, which was found by Justice Kimmel to be an infringement on her rights of expression.
Menard v. The Centre for International Governance Innovation: Trial Decision: Andrew represented a 6-year Vice President of Finance who was terminated and whose employer claimed after acquired cause based on policy breach. The company dropped their counterclaim before trial, and at trial, the Executive received 2 months per year of service, totaling 12 months’ notice, notwithstanding the alleged cause or a claim that the contract limited his notice period to 12 weeks. Costs Decision:(2019 CarswellOnt 8241, 2019 ONSC 2467) Monkhouse Law was awarded costs on a substantial basis in the amount of $175,000 to cover fees relating to prosecuting the case.
Ruston v. Keddco: Court of Appeal Decision: Monkhouse Law represented the terminated employee at the Court of Appeal, which denied all appeal attempts and awarded an additional $35,000 to cover the employee’s legal fees.
Ruston v. Keddco: Trial Decision: Andrew represented an 11-year President of the company who was terminated by the owners after accusations of fraud. After an 11-day trial, the $1.7 million fraud claim was found to be entirely without merit, and the President was awarded a long notice period of 19 months, his full bonus during the notice period, and $125,000 in damages between punitive and moral damages for the behavior and tactics of the Defendant.
Ruston v. Keddco: Costs Decision: Monkhouse Law was awarded the full amount requested for legal fees in the Ruston case, being $546,684.73, which is the largest amount of costs awarded to a wrongfully terminated employee that has been reported. The trial judge commented on how prepared Monkhouse Law was at the trial in awarding that amount.
Herzuk v. Kleiman: Motion: Monkhouse Law was fully successful on preliminary matters before a Master, limiting the scope of the trial. Because of the preliminary result, the Defendant conceded right after the release of the preliminary decision by accepting the Plaintiff’s previous offer.
Journeymen v. Core One: Labour Board Hearing: Andrew represented an employer in a preliminary matter before the Labour Board and was able to resist both preliminary union motions, to the benefit of the employer, and argue for after-acquired cause for conduct after termination, and also that the initial termination was a justified layoff.
Sondhi v. Deloitte Management Services LP: Class Action Certification: In a two-part certification process (see part one), Monkhouse Law and co-counsel Landy Marr Kats LLP certified a document reviewer class action relating to overtime, vacation, and statutory holiday pay for legal document reviewers at Deloitte. Justice Perell recognized Monkhouse law’s expertise in Employment Law regarding the suitability for certification. Class counsel was awarded $353,790.88 for their work on the certification hearing.
Ott v. Canadian Standard Home Services: Default Judgment Decision: Monkhouse Law received an order, including overtime pay and punitive damages, on a delinquent defendant in the amount of $98,121.81, including legal fees.
Bovin et al v. Over the Rainbow Packaging Services Inc: Default Judgment Decision: The Defendant failed to defend the action, resulting in a default judgment against them, including moral damages and 24 months’ notice for two employees who were constructively dismissed.
Holmes v. Hatch Ltd.: Summary Judgment Decision: Andrew increased the notice period from the 25.5 weeks offered to 18 months (77.4 weeks) for a Project Manager and Senior Water Resources Engineer. The award is more than triple the severance offered by defeating a complicated severance provision that attempted to limit the employee’s notice.
Johar v Best Buy Canada: Final Summary Judgment Decision: Andrew won the case without calling a single witness by bringing a summary judgment motion. He assisted an employee terminated for cause in his claim against Best Buy and was fully successful in proving wrongful dismissal.
Johar v Best Buy Canada: Costs Decision: Andrew won a cost award of $27,500 for his client to help pay legal fees on the decision against Best Buy. This award was 50% of the amount of the total severance and is one of the highest cost awards as a percentage of total awards given out.
Paquette v TeraGo Networks Inc.: Ontario Court of Appeal Decision: As the trial judge denied the Plaintiff his bonus, Monkhouse Law appealed the case successfully to the Court of Appeal, which ruled that employees are owed bonuses during their notice periods. With Andrew’s assistance, the employee received an additional $58,386.64 in bonus, plus a contribution to legal fees.
Paquette v TeraGo Networks Inc.: Trial Costs Decision: In a further costs decision relating to the Paquette case, Andrew was successful in getting the Court to award $31,000.00 to cover the legal fees of the terminated employee.
Paquette v TeraGo Networks Inc.: Trial Decision: In this case, the Plaintiff was dismissed without cause by the Defendant and brought a summary judgment motion in his wrongful dismissal action. Paquette was employed for 14 years and 4 months and earned an annual salary of $150,000.00. Andrew was able to get his client 17 months’ pay in lieu of notice, damages of $163,267.90 for his salary as well as for lost benefits.
Allamby v. Burnbrae Farms Limited: Human Rights Decision: At the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario, Andrew successfully argued to have a case that was struck for delay by a self-represented person added back on the hearing list.
Kurt v Idera Inc.: Divisional Appeal Court: In this case, Andrew successfully argued before the Divisional Court of Appeal regarding a constructive dismissal matter. On appeal, the court found that the motion judge had erred in law, and the matter was ordered back for a new summary judgment hearing.
Singh v. Qualified Metal Fabricators: Trial Decision (2016 CarswellOnt 8795, 267 A.C.W.S. (3d) 867). At trial, Andrew successfully argued that the contract that attempted to limit the employee to minimum notice was invalid and got his client a month’s pay per year of service. Based on an internal survey of cases, at least one-quarter of all employment contracts are invalid based on the logic utilized in Singh. After a successful trial, the judge awarded significant costs against the defendant covering the employee’s legal fees so that he was able to keep his entire severance (2016 CarswellOnt 8796, 267 A.C.W.S. (3d) 787).
Asgari v 975866 Ontario Ltd: Summary Judgment. Monkhouse Law successfully argued that a summary judgment motion was appropriate where the employee was terminated with just cause. The defendant relied on the company handbook to limit the reasonable notice period. However, Andrew won the argument that the handbook was not a contract of employment.
Zhang v. Totally Zing Inc.: Enforcement of Settlement (2016 CarswellOnt 17956). The defendant company settled but then denied there was a settlement and refused to pay. Andrew went to court to enforce the settlement, resulting in the court enforcing the settlement, plus legal fees for the enforcement.
Manase v Toronto District School Board: Cost Award. Prior to the commencement of a hearing in a wrongful dismissal matter involving a dispute on if the employee was an independent contractor or not, the plaintiff accepted a settlement offer, plus costs to be assessed if not agreed by the parties. The costs were not agreed to, and in this decision on the matter, Andrew successfully obtained his client costs in the amount of $40,000.00 to cover his client’s costs.
Weddell v. CondoFresh: This is a case where Andrew represented the employer and obtained successful results at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. Before the matter was heard, a civil claim for wrongful dismissal was also filed by the applicant. The tribunal ordered that the hearing be deferred until the civil action was resolved due to overlap of facts and issues between the two proceedings.
Alexander v. Longo Brothers Fruit Market Inc.: Andrew was successful at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario in resisting an application to strike the claim based on alleged duplication of proceedings.
History:
- Worked at Hicks Morley, Canada’s largest Employment and Labour Firm.
- Worked at Landy Marr Kats LLP, a litigation boutique.
- Worked at the Government of Canada, Employment Equity Division.
- Worked at the Government of Canada, Foreign Temporary Worker Division.
- Past President of the Carleton Academic Student Government at Carleton University.
Academic Awards:
- Top-ranked student in Carleton University’s BA Law program.
- Top-ranked student in Osgoode Hall Law School’s Litigation, Dispute Resolution, and Administration of Justice concentration.