Matlow, Miller, Cummins, Thrasher LLP

Criminal defence

Bernard Cummins has practised only in criminal law and associated regulatory proceedings since 1998. The criminal team takes on everything from bail hearings to manslaughter and first or second degree murder charges, and the firm commits to looking after a client's well-being from the first point of contact.

Regulatory charges and discipline

Regulatory work covers health and safety charges, liquor licence infractions, professional discipline hearings and forfeitures following weapon and drug seizures.

Construction disputes

Matlow Miller regularly advises owners, contractors and subcontractors when a project runs into trouble: change orders and extras, deficiencies or negligent workmanship, and delay. Missing a lien deadline by mistake still leaves options: one of the firm's construction litigation lawyers will quickly go over litigation routes beyond the Construction Act.

Injury and disability claims

If an insurer refuses to pay short- or long-term disability benefits to someone too injured or ill to work, Matlow Miller can help. David Thrasher's trial work includes personal injury and insurance litigation and disability claims, CPP appeals among them. Injury claims start with a free initial consultation on the merits of the claim.

Civil litigation

The firm's litigators handle commercial, estate and shareholder disputes, plus mortgage enforcement and power of sale, debt collection and expropriation proceedings. David Thrasher's commercial work extends to income tax appeals, construction liens and foreclosures.

Business clients

With over 100 years of combined experience, the business and corporate lawyers act on an ongoing basis for more than 600 businesses in the area, ranging from sole proprietors up to established corporations. Much of Myron Matlow's practice serves professionals and entrepreneurs who own their own practice or business, and Michael Miller handles professional incorporations alongside regular incorporations, shareholder agreements and business purchases and sales.

Property work

The real estate group documents and registers easements, rights-of-way and severances, and acts on private mortgages. It pairs real estate know-how with the firm's business law expertise on property matters, and its real estate lawyers sit down with clients to explain the transaction and answer questions personally.

Wills, estates and trusts

Since 1939 the firm's estate lawyers, law clerks and legal assistants have been preparing wills, powers of attorney and estate plans and helping with estate administration. Trust work covers inter vivos, spousal, testamentary and family trusts.

Family and child protection

Matlow Miller has over forty years of experience with separation and divorce, and its family lawyers help spouses who can't settle disputes over property, support or child custody, whether that takes negotiation, mediation or litigation. Jason Johnson has acted on family, child protection and criminal matters since being called to the bar in 2022, acting for parents and kin in child protection cases, and worked in the legal department of the Children's Aid Society of Ottawa as a law student in 2019.

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Employers and employees

Matlow Miller has advised small business employers, and employees of large and small companies, for over 40 years. Its litigators take on claims for wrongful dismissal and adjudications of unjust dismissal, as well as complaints under the Employment Standards Act and Canada Labour Code proceedings.

Notary appointments

Victoria Baxter, a licensed paralegal and notary public, assists with the firm's wills and estates files and with notary appointments, including certifying documents as true copies of the original.