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Neil Abbott is a partner in Gowlings’ Toronto office and the Toronto chair of the Firm's Recovery Services National Practice Group, and founding chair of the Firm's National Construction Practice Group.
Neil is an advocate in all courts in Ontario and, on occasion, in Nunavut. He divides his time equally as a litigator and solicitor with primary focus in the areas of consumer law; creditor’s rights and collections; secured transactions primarily related to truck, automotive and equipment financing; construction law and other liens; bankruptcy and insolvency; and civil fraud. He is also an expert in providing advice to Americans doing business in Canada.
In 2003, Neil was featured in the Ontario Lawyers Gazette as an outstanding mentor to his colleagues in the legal profession.
Consumer Law, Creditor’s Rights and Collections
Neil is an expert on all aspects of consumer law, including cost of credit disclosure, consumer protection, privacy, credit reporting and the rules and regulations respecting all of the foregoing especially the application of the New Ontario Consumer Protection Act . His clients include banks, institutional and private lenders, subprime, captive and independent finance companies, trade creditors, commercial enterprises, credit card companies, manufacturers, mortgagees and U.S. lenders.
Neil has also developed a Portfolio Overview and Regulatory Compliance (PORC) practice to provide advice to clients engaged in selling or purchasing a large portfolio of loans. Highlights of the PORC practice include travel to meet with key personnel and onsite vetting of loans for Regulatory Compliance, including a review of collection procedures, practices and litigation mandates, and preparation of a report of findings to be used in any bid for or tender of a portfolio.
Neil is an experienced practitioner in enforcing the rights of creditors as noted above. He handles both collections of entire portfolios, and individual claims. The claims process includes asset and skip tracing, credit searches, demand through to claim to realization and enforcement. Neil conducts judgment debtor examinations, issues garnishments and Sheriff’s seizures of personal and real property. His practice includes claims on guarantees, leases, conditional sales contracts, mortgages, inventory repossession, trade debts, cross-border debts, consumer debts, small business loans, priority disputes both between creditors and the Crown, including deemed trust super priority claims of Canada Revenue Agency.
Truck, Automotive and Equipment Finance
Neil primarily acts for secured lenders and lessors in this field. He has advised on lending and recovery of a wide variety of assets, including trucks, trailers, boats, cars, coaches and industrial and construction equipment. Neil provides advice on negotiation and drafting of all types of contracts, based on his many years of enforcing same. He has also litigated priority disputes, receiverships, government seizures and repossessions, Crown priority claims, repair and storage liens, repossessions, dealer defaults and exported collateral. Based on his experience in consumer law, he is also able to provide advice on the entire credit process, including privacy protection and disclosure requirements.
Neil also handles disciplinary proceedings for auto dealers before the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC) as well as drafts contracts such as leases and sales agreements compliant with the Ontario Motor Vehicle Dealers Act.
Construction Law and Other Liens
Neil's expertise includes negotiating and drafting construction contracts, tenders and bidding, enforcement and prosecution of liens, including trial of actions across the province. Neil provides construction management advice, which includes termination of contracts and retention of completion contractors. He has litigated claims on labour and material payment bonds, performance bonds and bid bonds. He has assumed construction liens in the course of receiverships and regularly provides advice to lenders on the priority between lien claimants and mortgagees. Neil is also an expert in dealing with deficiency and warranty claims for both commercial and residential properties.
Neil is the legal education advisor for the Canadian Geotechnical Engineers Association and has developed a practice in construction and geotechnical issues such as building on permafrost in Northern regions, including the conduct of a trial in Nunavut.
In addition to providing advice on construction liens, Neil has acted with respect to most other liens, including tax, solicitors’, common carriers’, Repair and Storage and livery-keepers’ liens under the Innkeepers’ Act, including the liens of horse trainers for stable fees and for unpaid race/purse winnings (Re Atto).
Neil is also a member of the Canadian Brownfields Network and an invitation-only participant in the National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy, particularly in developing policy for the removal of tax liens and the financing of improvements to environmentally damaged properties.
Bankruptcy and Insolvency
Neil's experience in bankruptcy and insolvency law covers a wide range of activities, including commercial and consumer bankruptcies, reorganizations, receiverships, Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) filings and proposals. He has acted for both secured and unsecured creditors, institutional and private lenders, trustees and receivers, lien claimants and, from time to time, the debtor. Neil provides advice with respect to both pre-bankruptcy and post-bankruptcy asset recovery and/or protection. He has conducted many cross-examinations under the various insolvency Acts, opposed discharges and obtained declarations to commence and continue actions and to have claims survive a bankruptcy.
Civil Fraud
Neil is a founding member of the Gowlings Civil Fraud team. He has prosecuted fraudulent claims in areas such as forgery, fraudulent conveyance, absconding debtors, misrepresentation of credit, identity theft, mortgage fraud, negotiation of fraudulent instruments, cheque kiting, “pump and dump” and telemarketing scams. He has acted for a number of regulatory bodies, institutional lenders and small businesses. Neil has contacts in the police and Crown, as well as relationships with forensic accountants, receivers and trustees. Truck, Automotive and Equipment Finance
Neil's notable cases include Re TCT, in which he successfully opposed the application of the costs of a receivership as against a secured creditor and Chrysler Credit v Fehr, where the Court held that a secured claim extends to insurance proceeds.
Construction Law and Other Liens
Neil regularly acts for the Ontario New Home Warranty Program (now Tarion Warranty Corporation) and successfully intervened on their behalf in the Beige Valley/Bridgenorth and Dominion Concrete case, which established that a request to repair by Tarion constitutes a legal obligation.
Bankruptcy and Insolvency
Notable cases include Re Lacrosse in which the rights to certain intellectual property were preserved in a bankruptcy; Re Emms (Ontario Court of Appeal) in which the class action of a bankruptcy petition was upheld by the substitution of a petitioning creditor, post-petition; and, Re Verbughe (Ontario Court of Appeal) in which the Court found that Farm Debt Mediation Act did not extend to guarantors.
Neil frequently writes for legal publications and provides legal content for World of Special Finance Canadian Edition, a monthly magazine with a focus on non-prime specialty finance. He is the Canadian National Editor for CARLAW.netthe premiere website for automobile finance law in North America.
Neil is a frequent lecturer and writer in the area of bankruptcy and insolvency and has presented papers on Canadian Bankruptcy Reform; a comparative study of U.S. and Canadian bankruptcy amendments; a concept of deepening insolvency in Canada as well as contributing to the National Creditor/Debtor Review.
Presentations
Neil is a frequent lecturer at Osgoode Hall Law School and at the engineering departments at University of Western Ontario, University of Waterloo and Ryerson University. He is an avid speaker and presenter on a number of topics, including “Fundamentals of Construction Lien Litigation,” “Liening the Public Project,” “Best Practices for Risk Management in Construction,” “Enforcing Lien Rights in Ontario,” “Liens in Insolvencies,” “Fundamentals of Registration under the Personal Property Security Act,” “How to use the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act,” “Collection Law in Ontario,” “The Merits and Tactics of Asset Protection," "Litigation against the PPSA Assurance Fund" and “Shedding Light on Deepening Insolvencies in Canada,” which he presented at the Fourth Annual DePaul University Symposium on Commercial Law.
Neil is also a guest speaker at the Institute of Law Clerks of Ontario on “collection remedies.” In 2007, he chaired a Canadian Institute two-day program on Successful Debt Recovery for Small Businesses and last year, he chaired a Canadian Institute two-day program on construction litigation techniques. Neil is also a speaker at the Ontario Bar Association seminar on “Litigation and Bankruptcy.” Most recently, he was a guest speaker at the Ontario Builder Forum at Blue Mountain in Collingwood.
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