The Mian v. Expro Group case illustrates an increasingly common scenario:  the remote worker who, when a conflict with their employer arises, sues in the place they live rather than in the employer’s home jurisdiction.  Is that allowed?  As is true in many legal claims, the answer is “it depends.”

I have the good fortune of meeting with large groups of people who are interested in employment law. Whether it’s a large meeting hall full of company workers in Ontario, a Zoom room of executives in New York, or a classroom full of law students in New Brunswick, all of them understand that certain kinds of bad behaviour can justify firing an employee. The hard question is “When is bad behaviour bad enough to get fired?” That line has shifted over the decades that I’ve been a lawyer, and it appears to be taking another shift right now.

Every fall I turn into a matchmaker.

At the start of each university semester, I warn law students that I want to cause them to fall in love with my friend, Employment Law. They’re about to spend the next 40 years (and an extraordinary amount of time) wrapped up in some field of law, and I want them to choose their “law life mate” wisely. Employment Law is often overlooked, and it shouldn’t be.