K. Michael Stephens
Michael Stephens is litigation counsel at Hunter Litigation
Chambers practising in the area of commercial law and public law
litigation. Michael has law degrees from Dalhousie Law School and
Harvard University, and is a former law clerk of the Supreme Court of
Canada.
Michael acts as legal counsel before courts and administrative
tribunals, and in arbitration proceedings, in respect of a wide
variety of commercial and administrative law disputes. He has
experience before British Columbia and Federal Courts, and at the
Supreme Court of Canada.
Michael has experience dealing with litigious land use matters, and
often represents clients in the forestry sector. For example, Mike was
lead counsel for TimberWest in a successful challenge to a 2009
municipal bylaw increasing the tax rate to TimberWest's private forest
lands on Vancouver Island.
Michael’s practice also includes constitutional law matters. Michael
appeared as counsel with John Hunter QC in one of the leading cases on
section 7 of the Charter, Blencoe v. British Columbia (Human Rights
Commission), [2000] 2 S.C.R. 307, and published a paper on section
7 entitled "Fidelity to Fundamental Justice: An Originalist
Construction of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms".
Michael has appeared as a speaker at legal education seminars, and has
been an instructor at the UBC Trial Advocacy Course. He has published
in the areas of administrative law, constitutional law, and litigation
practice and procedure. Michael is a member of the executive of the
CBA Administrative Law (BC) Subsection, and has served on the Law
Society of British Columbia's Working Group to develop Model Anton
Piller and Mareva Injunction Orders for use in British
Columbia courts.
Education
B. Com., Queen’s University, 1992
LL.B., Dalhousie University, 1996
LL.M., Harvard Law School, 1999
Clerkship
Supreme Court of Canada, 1996-1997
Bar Admission
British Columbia, 1998
Publications:
"The Fundamentals of Administrative Law", for the Western Canadian
Conference on The Law of Policing Workshop, November 22, 2010
Update to chapter on "Pre-trial Disclosure of Expert Opinions" in the
Continuing Legal Education's Expert Evidence in BC Civil Proceedings
(2011)
"Administrative Law", co-authored with Greg Allen, in the Continuing
Legal Education's Annual Review of Law & Practice (2011)
"Administrative Law" in the Continuing Legal Education's Annual Review
of Law and Practice (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010)
"Motions to Strike: Update and Strategic Considerations", co-authored
with Robert J.C. Deane, for the Continuing Legal Education Motions to
Strike Conference, held in Vancouver, British Columbia on November 13,
2009
"Civil Procedure -- Court Rules" in the Continuing Legal Education's
Annual Review of Law and Practice (2005), by Mike Stephens, Mark
Oulton and Jasmine MacAdam.
"Civil Procedure -- Court Rules" in the Continuing Legal Education's
Annual Review of Law and Practice (2004), by Mike Stephens, Stephanie
McHugh and Jasmine MacAdam.
"Fidelity to Fundamental Justice: An Originalist Construction of
Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms", (2002), 13
N.J.C.L. 183
A list of representative cases is set out below:
Teal Cedar Products Ltd. v. British Columbia, 2011 BCSC 360
(arbitration re: compensation for creation of park affecting forest
licence)
Burke v. Keefe, Vancouver Registry No. S081200, December 14,
2010 (judgment on claim for trespass, and to determine the location of
a disputed property boundary)
TimberWest v City of Campbell River, 2009 BCSC 1804 (challenge
to the validity of increase in municipal taxes upon holder of private
forest land)
Murray v Langley (Township), 2010 BCSC 102 (summary trial as to
whether landslide constituted an actionable private nuisance)
Wilson v Attorney General of Canada, 2010 FC 250 (judicial
review from grievance decision concerning denial of leave without pay
to a member of the RCMP)
VetshopAustralia Pty. Ltd. v. Pivotal Partners Inc., 2008 BCSC
1336 (application for production of privileged documents based on
asserted waiver of privilege)
Jay & Mereti Holdings Ltd. v. British Columbia Lottery Corporation,
2008 BCSC 198 (successfully setting aside an ex parte
injunction which sought to restrain the termination of a lottery
operations agreement)
Weyerhaeuser Company Limited v Hayes, 2008 BCCA 120 (concerning
the appeal of a decision denying leave to appeal an arbitration award
in a forestry dispute)
Weyerhaeuser Company Limited v Hayes, 2008 BCCA 31 (appeal from
decision setting aside arbitration award concerning a timber supply
execution agreement)
Soussan v. Wolters, 2006 BCCA 478 (review of a decision to deny
indigent status to appellant on appeal from decision dismissing action
for assault and battery)
International Forest Products Ltd v British Columbia, 2006 BCSC
233 (action for the return of monies paid to Province pursuant to the
invalid scaling of Crown timber)
West Vancouver v. British Columbia, 2005 FC 593 (challenge by
way of judicial review to the environmental assessment concerning the
Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project)
Society Promoting Environmental Conservation v. Canada (Attorney
General), 2003 FCA 239 (successfully defending a legal challenge
to the validity of the expropriation of land by the federal Crown at
Nanoose Bay, British Columbia)
Terrafund Financial Inc. v. 569244 B.C. Ltd. , 2000 BCSC 1719
(dismissal of action for enforcement of commitment letter on the
ground it is not an enforceable contract)
Blencoe v British Columbia (Human Rights Commission), 2000 SCC
44 (leading case on the interpretation and application of section 7 of
the Charter- the protection of life, liberty and security of
the person)