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Norwich Order (2)

Does an aggrieved party have any recourse when it suspects that it has been wronged, but needs information from a third party to either confirm or allay its suspicions? Under the right circumstances, the creditor can obtain a Norwich order, named after the plaintiff in a 1974 English case.

We first discussed this concept in a February 2009 newsletter discussing Isofoton v. TD Canada Trust, a 2007 decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Until the Isofoton decision, in Canada there had been a 2002 Alberta decision and that was about it. In our newsletter, we noted that the Norwich order remedy had not been used extensively in Ontario or Canada but suspected that it would have far more use because of the Isofoton decision. We were not wrong. In the past 18 years, the Isofoton decision has been cited seventy times in reported cases and articles and, in 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada examined and applied the concept.

The latest case to deal with a Norwich order is Taylor v. Metrolinx a 2024 decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

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Norwich Order (2)

Does an aggrieved party have any recourse when it suspects that it has been wronged, but needs information from a third party to either confirm or allay its suspicions? Under the right circumstances, the creditor can obtain a Norwich order, named after the plaintiff in a 1974 English case.

We first discussed this concept in a February 2009 newsletter discussing Isofoton v. TD Canada Trust, a 2007 decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. Until the Isofoton decision, in Canada there had been a 2002 Alberta decision and that was about it. In our newsletter, we noted that the Norwich order remedy had not been used extensively in Ontario or Canada but suspected that it would have far more use because of the Isofoton decision. We were not wrong. In the past 18 years, the Isofoton decision has been cited seventy times in reported cases and articles and, in 2018, the Supreme Court of Canada examined and applied the concept.

We have used this remedy extensively while acting for a creditor when we suspect that a judgment debtor has fraudulently transferred assets to a third party and we need information from the judgment debtor’s financial institution to determine whether the requested information supports our suspicion. If the information does, we commence a fraudulent conveyance or trust action.

The latest case to deal with a Norwich order is Taylor v. Metrolinx 2024 ONSC 4774, a decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Continue Reading >