MTL Barrister

About MTL Barrister

MTL Barrister is a Toronto insurance defence firm with an office at 372 Bay Street. Michael T. Lax founded the firm and has focused on defending insurance claims since 1990, after being called to the Ontario bar in 1987. What started as a traditional insurance defence practice has grown into one that handles a wider range of claims, including matters tied to the rental and fleet markets, transportation, sporting and amusement facilities, and property ownership and management. The firm also acts for municipalities and professionals, among them insurance brokers, managing general agents, engineers, and investment dealers, and it handles product liability, loss transfer, priority, and coverage disputes.

The team is small by design. MTL Barrister describes itself as a selective practice rather than a volume business, and its lawyers, called to the Ontario bar in 1987, 2011, and 2019, appear at all levels of court. The firm favours a collaborative approach with clients and tries to set an early strategy on a file so that the defence, not the claim, sets the direction of the litigation. Its clients tend to underwrite higher risk policies, a client base the firm says draws more claims than most.