Gigi Costanzo
Gigi focuses on finding practical solutions for our clients in a cost-effective manner and has a very unique and diverse practice which includes all aspects of real estate and civil litigation.
CIVIL LITIGATION PRACTICE
Gigi’s general civil litigation practice includes the following areas of law:
- Personal injury
- Debt collection
- Shareholder disputes
- Insurance claims
- Mortgage enforcement
- Construction law
- Commercial disputes
- Real estate disputes
- Residential and commercial transactions, and
- Landlord and tenant disputes
Gigi has appeared before the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Ontario Divisional Court, the Ontario Small Claims Court, as well as various tribunals and administrative boards.
REAL ESTATE PRACTICE
Gigi’s real estate practice includes the following practice areas:
- Residential and commercial transactions
- Land subdivision
- Residential and commercial mortgages, and
- Residential and commercial tenancies
Gigi has vast experience in real estate law, having completed over 4,000 real estate transactions. The combination of his knowledge of real estate law and real estate advocacy has allowed him to better serve his clients with real estate problems and disputes.
OUTSTANDING SERVICE TO CLIENTS
Gigi has successfully assisted clients with unique challenges, for example:
- Gigi acted for a client who was a minority shareholder in a company. The majority shareholders had taken all of the profits of the company, refused to provide any of the profits to our client, to sell their shares to our client, or to negotiate any settlement with our client. The majority shareholders brought a number of Motions in Court to prevent our client from exercising his legal rights against the majority shareholders, but Gigi was successful in having the Court dismiss each of those attempts. This led to the majority shareholders agreeing to sell their shares in the company to Gigi’s client.
- Gigi acted for a client who had been represented by a lawyer in a real estate transaction. Despite the lawyer’s negligence in handling the real estate transaction, the lawyer refused to pay our client compensation for the damages arising from the lawyer’s negligence. Gigi was successful in obtaining compensation from the lawyer’s insurer, without having to commence legal proceedings against the lawyer. This resulted in a swift and favourable outcome for our client, without incurring unnecessarily high litigation costs to them.
- In another case, Gigi discovered that our client’s company had been dissolved for more than 20 years. The company could not be re-instated because it had been dissolved for too long. As a result, the company’s investment property had escheated to the Provincial Government. Our client could not complete the sale of the property because the company had been dissolved. Gigi successfully obtained a Court Order vesting title in the property to his client and allowing our client to sell the property to the buyer, notwithstanding that the company was dissolved.
- One of our clients suffered catastrophic injuries in a car accident. The driver’s insurer refused to pay our client the maximum insurance policy limits. Gigi represented our client in suing the at-fault driver. Gigi secured a settlement in which the driver’s insurer paid out all of the insurance policy limits and structured the settlement so our client could earn interest on the settlement funds tax-free, and receive monthly settlement payments for the remainder of her lifetime. The settlement negotiated by Gigi allowed our client to receive payment of damages and keep her other collateral benefits, despite the at-fault party’s insurer demanding that our client assign her collateral benefits to the insurer in exchange for the settlement. As well, Gig and our law firm went beyond the call of duty and assisted our client and her mother with the management of their financial and other personal affairs arising from the serious injuries suffered by our client.
- In another case, Gigi’s client, a subcontractor, did work for a general contractor on a construction project. Despite the general contractor having received payment from the owner of the project, the general contractor did not pay our client. Gigi was able to commence an action against the directors of the general contractor firm for breach of trust. As a result, the directors of the general contractor paid our client.